CPSC Announces $1.25 Million Settlement with Toy Company for Lead Paint Violations
The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a notice of its provisional acceptance of a settlement agreement and an order containing a civil penalty against RC2 Corporation and its subsidiary Learning Curve Brands, Inc. (collectively, RC2) for allegedly violating the lead paint ban of 16 CFR Part 1303.
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Any interested person may ask CPSC not to accept this agreement or otherwise comment on its contents by filing a written request with the Office of the Secretary by January 26, 2010.
RC2 Agrees to Pay $1.25 Million to Settle Lead Paint Allegations
CPSC has entered into a provisionally accepted settlement agreement with RC2 and has issued an order imposing a civil penalty of $1.25 million to settle allegations that from 2003 to 2007, RC2 knowingly1 imported and sold various Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys with paints or other surface coatings that contained lead levels above legal limits.
(RC2 imported up to 1.5 million units of non-compliant Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys between January 2005 and June 2007, and distributed them to its retail customers for sale to U.S. consumers. These toys were recalled in June 2007. RC2 also imported up to 200,000 units of five additional non-compliant toys from this product line between March 2003 and April 2007, and distributed them to its retail customers for sale to U.S. consumers. In September 2007, the original June 2007 recall was expanded to include these additional units.)
Thomas & Friends Recalls Were Catalyst for CPSIA, Tougher Lead Paint Limit
According to a CPSC Chairman Tenenbaum, RC2's highly publicized recalls of Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys were a catalyst for Congressional action that lead to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 which, among other things, aimed to strengthen CPSC and to make the lead-in-paint limits even stricter.
1"knowingly" under 15 USC 2069(d) means: (1) the having of actual knowledge, or (2) the presumed having of knowledge deemed to be possessed by a reasonable man who acts in the circumstances, including knowledge obtainable upon the exercise of due care to ascertain the truth of representations.
CPSC contact - M. Reza Malihi (301) 504-7733
CPSC press release (dated 12/29/09) available at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10094.html
CPSC notice (D/N 10-C0002, FR Pub 01/11/10) available at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-282.pdf