NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Toyota has signed with the federal government claims that it did not comply with Clean Air Act reporting requirements.
The settlement and lawsuit went down Jan. 14, as the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency announced a $180 million agreement with the carmaker. Susan Bodine of the EPA said Toyota failed to report mandatory information about potential defects in their cars to the EPA for a decade.
The CAA requires manufacturers to notify the EPA when 25 or more vehicles or engines in a model year have the same defect in an emission control part.
“(T)oyota systematically violated these reporting requirements over the course of a decade,” says the lawsuit, filed in New York federal court.
“It materially delayed filing hundreds of reports about approximately 78 emission0related defects. Some reports were filed as late as eight years after they were due and only when Toyota finally disclosed its years of noncompliance to the EPA.
“Toyota’s late filings related to potential defects in millions of vehicles.”