"When a company has received information about nearly 200 incident reports and more than 35 injuries yet fails to report to CPSC as required by law, as Office Depot did, there must be accountability. Consumers who bought two popular models of Office Depot chairs experienced them unexpectedly breaking during use. Office Depot failed to report serious incidents to CPSC immediately, as the law clearly requires. More importantly, Office Depot failed to take responsibility and care for the safety of their customers. While this well-deserved civil penalty is not even close to the level Congress authorized and expected when enacting the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, I have put violators on notice that we will seek much higher penalties, as appropriate.
It is my hope that with an internal compliance program in place, in addition to the penalty, Office Depot will closely adhere to CPSC's vital product safety reporting laws and demonstrate that they genuinely put consumer safety first and foremost."