Airliners, E-Cigs Dent America’s Self-Regulating Credibility
Companies from Boeing to Juul have enjoyed certain freedoms that could backfire if consumers feel their safety is being jeopardized.
Just the barest facts are unsettling. A federal regulator in the U.S. routinely permits a major American manufacturer to certify that its products are safe. Then, in recent months, 346 people perish. The company, of course, is Boeing Co.; the regulator is the Federal Aviation Administration. And while both say they did nothing wrong, the finer points of how the agency relied on the jetmaker’s assurances about the safety of flight-control software suspected in the crashes of two of its 737 Max jetliners are now the subject of federal investigations.
The self-regulatory freedom enjoyed by Boeing is common in the U.S. And it raises questions about the efficacy of the nation’s consumer-protection system, long the envy of the world and part of the reason American products are trusted more than those of many other countries.