Mattel to pay record penalty for ’07 recalls
By Staff -- Gifts and Dec, June 5, 2009
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced today that Mattel and its Fisher-Price subsidiary have agreed to pay a $2.3 million civil penalty for their 2007 lead-paint related toy recalls.
The settlement, which has been provisionally accepted by the Commission, resolves CPSC allegations that Mattel and Fisher-Price knowingly (as defined in the Consumer Product Safety Act) imported and sold children’s toys with paints or other surface coatings that contained lead levels that violated the 1978 federal law that prohibited toys and other children’s articles from having more than 0.06 percent lead (by weight) in paints or surface coatings.
In 2007, approximately 2 million units of a combined 95 different Mattel and Fisher-Price SKUs were determined to have exceeded the 0.06 percent lead limit.
The agreeing to pay the penalty, Mattel and Fisher-Price settled allegations that:
• Mattel imported up to 900,000 non-compliant toys between September 2006 and August 2007, including the “Sarge” toy car and numerous Barbie accessory toys, and distributed most of them to its retail customers for sale to U.S. consumers. The “Sarge” car was recalled in August 2007 and the Barbie toys were recalled in September 2007.
• Fisher-Price imported up to 1.1 million non-compliant toys between July 2006 and August 2007, including certain licensed character toys and its Bongo Band, GeoTrax locomotive, and Go Diego Go Rescue Boat toys. Most of these toys were distributed to retail stores for sale to consumers. The licensed character toys were recalled in August 2007, the Bongo Band and GeoTrax toys were recalled in September 2007, and the Go Diego Go Boat toys were recalled in October 2007.
“These highly publicized toy recalls helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even stricter the ban on lead paint on toys,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Thomas Moore. “This penalty should serve notice to toy makers that CPSC is committed to the safety of children, to reducing their exposure to lead, and to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.”
In agreeing to the settlement, Mattel and Fisher-Price deny that they knowingly violated federal law, as alleged by CPSC.
Similar fines may be on the way for other of the lead paint recalls from that period. According to a CPSC spokesperson, "There were many other lead paint violations in 2007 and those are active cases for CPSC at this time."
