After a long civil probe that began in 2016 by the Justice Department, Toyota Motor Corp settled for $180 million. The defects found in emissions systems in Toyota vehicles were a violation of the Clean Air Act.
Though Toyota publicly announced they were under investigation in 2016, the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan had never commented until this week’s settlement announcement.
The new $180 million decree is the largest civil penalty for violating the EPA emissions reporting laws in history. The lawsuit alleges Toyota systematically ignored and violated the Clean Air Act from about 2005 through 2015.
The Clean Air Act was created to protect both the environment and public health from harmful air pollutants.
The Department of Justice statement reveals Toyota did not comply with reporting requirements and “materially delayed filing an estimated 78 EDIRs, filing many only when disclosing non-compliance to EPA in 2015, at which point some were as much as eight years late.”
Over a decade, the statement added, Toyota personnel including managers and staff knew they were intentionally not complying with the Clean Air Act.
The new settlement also includes a mandate that Toyota make semi-annual compliance reports and provisions for guaranteeing “timely investigation of emission-related defects and timely reporting to EPA, and include training, communication, and oversight requirements.”
“This settlement is yet another important milestone settlement for this Administration, and it continues our unwavering commitment to ensuring that our environmental laws as written, including EPA’s regulations, are rigorously enforced,” said Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Audrey Strauss, Acting US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, said Toyota intentionally and regularly broke the law over the past dozen years, reneging on their agreement to follow Clean Air Act protocols.
“For a decade, Toyota systematically violated regulations that provide EPA with a critical compliance tool to ensure that vehicles on the road comply with federal emissions standards. Toyota shut its eyes to the non-compliance, failing to provide proper training, attention, and oversight to its Clean Air Act reporting obligations. Toyota’s actions undermined EPA’s self-disclosure system and likely led to delayed or avoided emission-related recalls, resulting in a financial benefit to Toyota and excess emissions of air pollutants. Today, Toyota pays the price for its misconduct with a $180 million civil penalty and agreement to injunctive relief to ensure that its violations will not be repeated.”
Toyota admits and acknowledges responsibility for its non-compliance. The company plans to report the new $180 million settlement costs in after-tax charges on March 31, 2012, its fiscal year’s end.
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