{"id":246,"date":"2015-02-24T14:19:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T17:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.messalaw.com\/recall\/?p=246"},"modified":"2015-02-24T14:19:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T17:19:45","slug":"general-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.messalaw.com\/recall\/general-electric\/","title":{"rendered":"General Electric Agrees to $3.5 Civil Penalty for Failure to Report Fire Hazards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Consumer Product Safety Commission<\/a> (CPSC) is reporting that General Electric<\/a> (GE) has agreed to pay a $3.5 million civil penalty<\/strong> as a result of their failure to report an unreasonable risk of serious injury caused by defective ranges and dishwashers. The connector in the range\u2019s wire harness can overheat and cause a fire and risk dangers of burn injuries. In addition to the duel fuel ranges,\u00a0various\u00a0models of dishwashers were recalled due to similar fire hazards. It was found the dishwashers could short circuit when condensation builds up on the control board.<\/p>\n

Standard CPSC policy is that manufacturers, distributors, and retailers report to CPSC immediately upon receiving information that would indicate there can be a reasonable conclusion that a product contains a defective part that can cause substantial product hazard, creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death, or fails to comply with any consumer product safety rules or standards. Generally, this happens within 24 hours of obtaining the information.<\/p>\n

GE & CPSC announce the recall of 28,000 dual-fuel ranges in April of 2009. The ranges were sold across the United States from June 2002 through December 2005 with a price range of $1,300 to $2,000. By the time of recall GE had received 13 separate incidents where the harness and wiring overheated in the back of the range. Of these incidents, five resulted in fire. It was reported that General Electric\u00a0was aware of this hazard dating all the way back to 2004. Like the dual-fuel ranges, GE failed to report in a timely matter the fire hazards that were found in Profile and Monogram Dishwashers that were sold between July 2003 and October 2010 with price ranging from $750 to $1,400.\u00a0 GE received several incident reports prior to the 2010 CPSC recall of 174,000 units, one dating back to 2007.<\/p>\n

In addition to the payment of $3.5 million General Electric has also agreed to a compliance program as part of the settlement.\u00a0 The compliance program is set to insure that the Consumer Product Safety Act is being satisfied as well as a system of internal procedures and controls such as:<\/p>\n