Whirlpool to pay $11.5 million penalty for failing to immediately report defective glass cooktops – By Deb Kiner (Pennlive) / Aug 24, 2023
Whirlpool has agreed to pay a $11.5 million civil penalty to settle charges that failed to immediately report a defect in glass cooktops that could create a hazard of burns and/or fires.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said today that “17 models of its JennAir, KitchenAid, and Whirlpool brand electric radiant heat cooktops contained” the defect.
The commission said penalty resolves “CPSC’s charges that Whirlpool knowingly failed to immediately report to CPSC, as required by law, …”
The commission said that from November 2017 and into 2019, Whirlpool received complaints from users “that cooktop surface elements turned on by themselves. Despite possessing information that reasonably supported the conclusion that the cooktops contained a defect that could create a substantial product hazard or created an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death, Whirlpool did not immediately report to the Commission.
