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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: Gree Electric Appliances Inc.
Current Parent Company: Gree Electric Appliances
Parent at the Time of the Penalty Announcement:  subscribe to see this data field
Penalty: $91,000,000
Year: 2021
Date: October 29, 2021
Offense Group: safety-related offenses
Primary Offense: product safety violation
Violation Description: A Chinese appliance manufacturer and two of its subsidiaries agreed to resolve criminal charges for failing to notify the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that millions of dehumidifiers they sold to U.S. consumers were defective and could catch fire. The resolutions were the first corporate criminal enforcement actions ever brought under the Consumer Product Safety Act. Gree Electric Appliances Inc. of Zhuhai, a global appliance manufacturer headquartered in Zhuhai, China, and Hong Kong Gree Electric Appliances Sales Co. Ltd. entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in connection with a criminal information filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. A criminal information filed along with the DPA charged the companies with one felony count under the CPSA of willfully failing to report consumer product safety information to the CPSC. Under the terms of the DPA, the companies agreed to a total monetary penalty of $91 million and agreed to provide restitution for any uncompensated victims of fires caused by the companies' defective dehumidifiers; $15 million paid in a previous CPSC action (see separate entry) was credited against the $91 million.
Level of Government: federal
Action Type: agency action
Agency: Consumer Product Safety Commission referral to the Justice Department
Civil or Criminal Case: criminal
Prosecution Agreement: deferred prosecution agreement
HQ Country of Current Parent: China
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: government-owned
Major Industry of Current Parent: housewares and home furnishings
Specific Industry of Current Parent: small appliances
Source of Data: (click here)
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Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.