How to Register a Product So You Hear About Recalls

When a product is recalled, the company has to find the people who own it. Often it cannot, because it sold through a store and does not know who took the box home. The registration card in the packaging, usually thrown out with the wrapping, is the one mechanism designed to solve that. This guide explains what registering does, why it is a legal requirement for some nursery products, what the company is allowed to do with your details, and the other ways to make sure a recall reaches you.

Why registration matters

A recall notice is a public announcement. Whether you see it depends on luck, unless the company can write to you. The CPSC’s advice to consumers is to send in the registration cards that come with new products so that companies know how to reach you if there is a recall.

There is some evidence that it makes a difference. A CPSC report to Congress noted that after registration cards became mandatory for child car seats, the share of recalled seats that were repaired rose from 13.8 percent to 21.5 percent. That is one product category, and the figures are old, so treat it as an indication, not a measure of what registration will do for an appliance today.

Where the law requires a card

For durable infant and toddler products, registration is not left to the manufacturer’s goodwill. Under a 2008 federal law, the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, and the CPSC rule that implements it, manufacturers and importers must:

• provide a postage-paid registration card attached to the product;
• offer registration through a website, or by email if they have no website;
• keep a record of the people who register;
• permanently mark the product with the manufacturer’s name and contact details, the model, and the date of manufacture.

The category includes cribs, strollers, high chairs, play yards, bassinets, infant carriers and similar products; the CPSC’s list also covers items such as bedside sleepers and crib mattresses. The rule also restricts what the company may do with the information: it may use it only to tell you about safety alerts and recalls, and not for marketing.

That last point answers the usual reason for not registering. For nursery products, a registration card is not a mailing-list sign-up. Given how often sleep products in particular are recalled, as our summary of baby sleep product recalls shows, this is the registration most worth doing.

Appliances, electronics and everything else

For other products we found no equivalent federal registration rule, so the details vary by company.

• Read what you are agreeing to. Registration forms may include a marketing opt-in. You can register for safety notices and decline the rest.
• Give only what is needed. A name, an email or postal address, the model and serial number and the purchase date are enough for a recall. Survey questions about income or household are not.
• Registering is separate from the warranty. Some companies combine the two forms. Whether a warranty depends on registration is a matter for its terms; see what an appliance warranty covers.

How to register, and what to record

1. Do it when you unpack. The CPSC’s advice is to fill in the card, or register online, as soon as the package is opened.
2. Find the model and serial number. They are on the rating label: underneath or on the back of an appliance, inside a door, or on the frame of a nursery product. Photograph the label.
3. Register on the manufacturer’s own website if you have lost the card. Go to the site directly instead of following a link in an email or advertisement.
4. Keep your own record. A note or photograph of the brand, model, serial number, purchase date and receipt, for each appliance and nursery product in the house. If a recall is announced, this is what you will need to check.
5. Update it when things change. If you move, or pass the product on, the CPSC suggests going back to the manufacturer’s website to update the contact details.

If you bought second-hand or received it as a gift

You can still register. The manufacturer’s website will normally accept a registration from whoever owns the product now. Before you do, check that the product has not already been recalled, because the previous owner may never have heard: our guide to checking whether a product has been recalled shows how. It is unlawful to sell a recalled product, but they do change hands.

Other ways to hear about a recall

Registration is one channel among several. A CPSC review of crib and stroller recalls from 2010 and 2011 found that most owners first learned of the recall from websites and other sources, with direct letters some way behind. So use more than one:

• CPSC recall emails. The CPSC offers free email notifications, which you can limit to the product types you care about. The sign-up is on its recalls page.
• Recalls.gov. The federal portal offers sign-up for notices from the CPSC, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
• The CPSC’s recall app lets you search recalls from a phone.
• Your retailer account. A store that has your order history may contact buyers of a recalled product. Do not rely on it, but keep the email address on the account current.
• A periodic check. Once or twice a year, search the brands of the appliances you leave running unattended and anything a child sleeps or sits in.

Watch for fake recall notices

A message that claims to be a recall and asks for payment details, or sends you to an unfamiliar site to “claim your refund”, should be treated with suspicion. Check the product against the notice on the CPSC’s own website, and contact the company through the details given there. A real recall remedy does not require your card number.

When a recall does reach you

Follow the notice, and keep the product until you have done what it asks. Our guide to how recall refunds work explains the remedies and what to do if the company is slow to respond.

How we researched this

This guide is based on the CPSC’s published guidance on registration for durable infant and toddler products, its report to Congress on recall notification, and its consumer advice on recalls. It describes US rules as of October 2026 and is general information. The advice on what to record and on fake recall notices is our own practical suggestion, not a quotation from the CPSC.