Wagner Spray Tech Corp. Fined $800,000 for Not Disclosing Overheating Battery Charger Problems

Wagner Spray Tech. Corp. of Plymouth, Minn. has just been slapped with an $800,000 civil fine by the Consumer Product Safety Commission for failing to report problems with defective cordless power drill battery chargers that overheated, causing property damage to consumers.

The fine ends a federal lawsuit brought by the government and accusing the company and a subsidiary, Techtronic Industries of North America Inc., of failing to report the defective battery chargers to the CPSC in a timely fashion, as required by law. The case had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota by the Office of Consumer Litigation of the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the CPSC.

The defective Wagner and Techtronic battery chargers were used for drills and other cordless tools and blamed for several incidents in which they overheated or caught fire, causing property damage, the CPSC said.

Company officials reportedly learned about problems with the battery chargers overheating in 1999 and continuing into 2000, but did not immediately report the problems to the CPSC. About 180,000 of the battery chargers were recalled in March 2004.

“The law is clear, companies have a responsibility to immediately inform us about products that could pose a fire safety hazard to families, and we will hold them accountable,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum in a statement announcing the financial penalty.

While Wagner and Techtronic agreed to pay the fine to resolve the government’s lawsuit, the companies denied that they broke federal product-safety laws in regards to the overheating powerless tool battery chargers.

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