CPSC Settles Perfect Fitness Case
A $425,000 civil penalty is included in the settlement, which involves Perfect Pullup exercise equipment that was sold in 2008 and recalled in February 2011.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has provisionally accepted a settlement agreement with Perfect Fitness in connection with Perfect Pullup exercise equipment that was recalled on Feb. 17, 2011. The agreement includes a $425,000 civil penalty by the company, which denies the products contained a substantial product hazard or an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death; it also denies knowingly violating the law requiring immediate reporting of defective products to CPSC.
The company distributed about 10,000 of them in 2008 and received its first complaint involving breakage of the handles in May 2008, according to the commission's notice in the Federal Register. The company began an internal review and in June 2008 began retesting the handle design; it was redesigned in July to be stronger, as Perfect Fitness's online recall page illustrates.
But when the company began production of the new design and discontinued distribution of the recalled version, it did not notify CPSC, the notice states, adding that Perfect Fitness posted an online notice in March 2010 that consumers could replace the original products free of charge. Perfect Fitness knew of at least 23 user injury incidents by that time but didn't make a report to the commission until Dec. 20, 2010, according to the notice. By the date of that report, the company was aware of at least 45 injury reports and had received moiré than 2,000 requests for replacement products, it says.
The recalls page indicates three different handles were produced, and only Handle 1 was recalled. It says these were only 1.5 percent of the handles sold online from January to August 2008 via www.perfectpullup.com and at retailers' sites and stores starting in February 2008.