The Feds vs. Craig Zucker: Are Regulators Carrying Out a Personal Vendetta Against the Creator of Buckyballs?

Four years ago, serial-entrepreneur Craig Zucker had a hit
product on his hands: Buckyballs, desk toys comprised of
supercharged mini magnets, which were flying off the shelves and
into the shopping carts of fidgety-handed customers. Zucker’s
company, Maxfield & Oberton, had sales of $10 million in
2009. 

Zucker’s troubles began last year, when the
federal Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) filed an
administrative complaint that sought to ban and recall the product
on the grounds that it was dangerous for children. It’s true that
if swallowed, these powerful tiny balls can cause internal bleeding
because they seek to find other magnets when lodged in a person’s
bowels or intestinal tract. But banning the product was
“statistically ridiculous,” as
a report in the Huffington Post explained. There were
22 reported incidents of ingested Buckeyballs from 2009 to October
2011, or one for every 100,000 sets sold. That means the product is
orders of magnitude less risky than dogs, tennis, skateboarding,
and poisonous household chemicals. And the product was clearly
marked, “Keep Away from All Children.”

View this article.