Johnson Health Tech Trading Agrees to Pay $16.875 Million Civil Penalty for Failure to Immediately Report Fall Hazard with Horizon T101-05 Treadmills

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is announcing that Johnson Health Tech Trading, Inc. (“JHTT) of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, has agreed to pay a $16.875 million civil penalty. The settlement, which has been provisionally accepted by CPSC, resolves CPSC’s charges that JHTT knowingly failed to immediately report to CPSC, as required by law, that its Horizon T101-05 treadmills contained a defect that could create a substantial product hazard and created an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death to consumers.

Between March 2018 and October 2022, JHTT received at least 874 reports of the treadmills unexpectedly accelerating, stopping, or changing speed, including at least 71 reports of consumer injury. Although JHTT took steps to mitigate the fall hazard through production changes in February 2021 and September 2021, and although consumer incidents continued to occur after these changes were implemented, JHTT did not immediately report to the Commission as required.  

The Commission and JHTT jointly announced a recall of the Horizon T101-05 treadmills on October 27, 2022.  The recall stated that the treadmills can unexpectedly accelerate, change speed, or stop without user input, posing a fall hazard.

In addition to the $16.875 million civil penalty, the settlement agreement requires JHTT and an affiliated company, Johnson Health Tech North America, Inc., to maintain internal controls and procedures designed to ensure compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), including the appointment of a product safety professional who will supervise compliance with the CPSA and make recommendations on timely section 15(b) reporting, and implementation of steps to ensure that incident and injury data is reviewed and analyzed for purposes of CPSA section 15(b) reporting. The companies have also agreed to submit an annual report regarding the compliance program, internal controls, and internal audit of the effectiveness of compliance policies, procedures, systems and training for three years.

The Commission has provisionally accepted the settlement agreement, subject to public comment. Mark S. Raffman, a Senior Trial Attorney in the Division of Enforcement and Litigation, represented the Commission in this enforcement action.