FAILED TO ADVISE GOVERNMENT THAT PRODUCTS WERE DEFECTIVE
In a press release dated April 24, 2023, the United States Department of Justice announced that Gree USA, Inc – a subsidiary of a Chinese appliance company – pleaded guilty to a felony violation and was sentenced to pay a $500,000 criminal fine for failing to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that millions of the company’s dehumidifiers posed a fire hazard. (That fine, together with damage payments to the company’s victims, were part of a $91 million deal reach with three different Gree entities.)
In a written statement U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California, noted, “This corporation endangered the safety of American consumers by failing to promptly report a known problem with their defective humidifiers …. Fortunately, authorities were able to stop this practice before Gree USA, Inc. could cause greater harm. This historic case underscores our commitment to protect the public from dangerous products that could cause consumers real harm and to hold accountable corporate entities who knowing violate our laws in promotion of their greed.”
If it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity ….
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