Source: United States Department of Justice
Headline: Michaels Stores Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million to Settle CPSC Delayed Reporting Claim
Michaels Stores Inc. and Michaels Stores Procurement Co. Inc. (Michaels) agreed to enter into a consent decree and pay $1.5 million, the Justice Department announced today. The decree resolves allegations that Michaels failed timely to report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) information regarding a large glass vase that injured consumers between 2007 and 2009.
“This settlement underscores the importance of reporting product safety issues immediately,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The Department of Justice will continue to prioritize consumer safety by enforcing product safety obligations.”
Between 2006 and 2010, Michaels sold approximately 200,000 of the vases in the United States and Canada. In February 2010, Michaels reported safety issues related to the vases to the CPSC. The Department of Justice’s April 2017 Amended Complaint alleged that Michaels violated the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) by not reporting the vases’ safety issues earlier, as Michaels possessed information that the vases had injured one consumer in 2007 and at least four customers in the first half of 2009.
The consent decree requires Michaels to maintain a compliance program to ensure that it complies with the CPSA and to maintain internal controls and procedures designed to ensure timely, complete, and accurate reporting to the CPSC.
“I’m pleased that the Department of Justice and Michaels were able to reach this agreement,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle. “We greatly appreciate DOJ’s efforts on behalf of consumers.”
In agreeing to settle the case, Michaels has not admitted that it violated the law.
The United States is represented by Trial Attorneys Kerala Cowart, Claude Scott, and Lisa Hsiao of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Hasday of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, with the assistance of Patricia Vieira of the CPSC’s Office of the General Counsel. For more information about the Consumer Protection Branch, visit its website at http://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch.