The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says an air conditioning manufacturing company has agreed to pay a $5.5 million civil penalty for delaying and misrepresenting a fire hazard related to air conditioners and heaters it sold nationwide.
Goodman Company recalled 233,500 of the air conditioner units in 2014. They were sold from January 2007 to June 2008 at a cost of $700 to $1,000. The penalty resolves allegations in a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas that the firm knowingly failed to inform CPSC immediately, as required by federal law, that its packaged terminal air conditioners/heaters (PTACs) contained a hazardous defect and posed an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death to consumers. The complaint also alleges that when Goodman ultimately reported the fire risk to CPSC, it misrepresented the number of fires that had occurred.