Toyota
On Thursday, Toyota reached a settlement with the US government on a decade of non-compliance with Clean Air Act reporting regulations. By law, any defects or recalls affecting vehicle emissions equipment must be reported to the Environmental Protection Agency.
But, says Susan Bodine, assistant administrator of the EPA, “[f]or a decade in which Toyota failed to report mandatory information about potential defects in their cars to the EPA, leaving the agency in the dark and evading surveillance. EPA considers this failure a serious violation of the Clean Air Act. “
Manufacturers are expected to submit emission defect information reports if they are aware of an emission defect that affects at least 25 or more vehicles (or engines) of a particular model in a particular model year. They must also submit voluntary recall reports at the start of a recall to resolve an emissions issue, as well as quarterly reports on the progress of the recall.
However, the Justice Department says that for 10 years, starting in 2005, Toyota has delayed submitting somewhere in the region of 78 emission defect information reports – affecting millions of vehicles during this time – and many of them in the lap of the EPA in 2015. there were 20 recall reports (and 200 quarterly reports) that were never filed.
The DOJ says Toyota in Japan chose to follow a weaker emissions error reporting requirement set by California’s Air Resources Board that would only file defect reports with the EPA if they also comply with CARB.
Toyota has reached a settlement with the government and acknowledged and accepted responsibility for this lost decade of reporting. As a result, it will pay a civil fine of $ 180 million, the highest fine ever imposed for violating this requirement of the Clean Air Act.