The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) just issued a press release about the $4.65 million civil penalty that Viking Range has agreed to pay in connection with charges that they failed to report defective gas ranges in a timely manner. According to the CPSC, Viking Range, LLC of Greenwood, Mississippi, and Viking’s parent firm, The Middleby Corporation of Elgin, Illinois have agreed to pay the multi-million-dollar civil penalty in addition to maintaining internal compliance controls moving forward. The penalty settles charges that the company failed to immediately report defective and dangerous gas ranges to the CPSC.
Defective Viking Gas Ranges
Viking received 170 incident reports about defective gas ranges between 2008 and 2014. These reports included issues associated with these particular gas ranges turning on spontaneously. Additionally, many of these ranges could not be turned off using control knobs. At least two consumers were burned while attempting to disconnect the power source to the ranges. There were also five reports of property damage due to ranges that turned on spontaneously. Some consumers even had to call 911 for assistance when these ranges turned on and couldn’t be turned off. CPSC charged that Viking knew about this problem, the risks and the defect associated with these ranges, but did not notify them as required by federal law.
Recall of Defective Viking Gas Ranges
In May of 2015, Viking finally issued a recall of 52,000 defective ranges. These gas ranges were initially sold at a variety of retail outlets including ABT, Ferguson and Morrison, among others. In addition to the multi-million-dollar civil penalty, Viking has also agreed to maintain an enhanced safety compliance program with the CPSC. They are also supposed to maintain internal controls and procedures to prevent something like this from happening again.
Consumer Product Safety in San Jose
Consumers in San Jose, San Francisco and across the nation are counting on product manufacturers to comply with all federal safety laws. If you purchase a product, you expect to be notified immediately if the company gets numerous reports of a dangerous and potentially deadly defect.
Alexander Law Group, LLP is always ready to answer questions and share the results of our research and experience with the public. Our goal is to make a difference for our clients and our community.
