Home Depot to Pay $5.7 Million Penalty for Selling Recalled Products
CPSC said the Atlanta-based company's agreement settles charges that it knowingly sold and distributed approximately 2,816 recalled products from 33 separate voluntary corrective actions from August 2012 through November 2016.
Home Depot U.S.A. Inc. has agreed to pay a $5.7 million civil penalty for selling and distributing previously recalled consumer products, including welding torches, under cabinet power and light strips, stepladders, portable heaters, smoke and CO alarms, and fire extinguishers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Aug. 30. CPSC said the Atlanta-based company's agreement settles charges that it knowingly sold and distributed approximately 2,816 recalled products from 33 separate voluntary corrective actions from August 2012 through November 2016; it is illegal to sell, offer for sale, or distribute in commerce a consumer product that is subject to voluntary corrective action, such as a recall, that has been publicly announced and taken in consultation with CPSC.
The agency posted a list of the recalled products at issue here and described them generally as products intended to address fire hazards, laceration hazards, and electrocution and shock hazards, as well as other uses.
CPSC and Home Depot on Nov. 18, 2015, jointly re-announced the recalls of products that Home Depot sold and distributed after the original recalls had been announced.
In addition to paying the $5.7 million civil penalty, Home Depot will maintain a compliance program to ensure compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act, including a program for the appropriate disposal of recalled products, and will maintain a system of internal controls and procedures. The company's settlement does not constitute an admission by Home Depot, or a determination by the Commission, that Home Depot knowingly violated the act. The commission voted 4-1 to accept the settlement provisionally; Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle voted to accept a lower penalty.