OKK Trading To Pay Civil Penalty
It looks like the OKK Trading toy company has to pay a civil penalty for violating the federal lead paint ban and other child safety standards. The federal ban started back in 1978 making it over 30 years young. Some OKK Trading action figures were recalled late last year for high levels of lead paint.
Okk Trading has agreed to and is supposed to pay a penalty sum of $665,000. Several problem toys have been outlined in the full CPSC article here. The CPSC alleges that OKK Trading knew the toys violated the child safety standards, but sold them anyway, a claim OKK Trading denies. Although it’s possible OKK Trading knew, it would be difficult to prove.
It’s not surprising OKK Trading denies it even if they did know. For now, they only have to pay the civil penalty over the blunder of selling dangerous toys whether they knew or not. This forces them to put better checks in place so they don’t get a bigger fine for a second offense.
Admitting they knew they were doing something bad would really bring down the punishment, but even if they didn’t know, is a few hundred thousand dollars enough to send the message? I guess if they are dollar store toys, maybe.
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