The New York Times reports:
Toyota Motor is set to pay a $180 million fine for longstanding violations of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. attorney's Office in Manhattan announced on Thursday, the largest civil penalty ever levied for a breach of federal emissions-reporting requirements.
From about 2005 to 2015, the global automaker systematically failed to report defects that interfered with how its cars controlled tailpipe emissions, violating standards designed to protect public health and the environment from harmful air pollutants, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan.
Toyota managers and staff in Japan knew about the practice but failed to stop it, and the automaker quite likely sold millions of vehicles with the defects, the attorney's office said.
The $180 million penalty is the largest civil penalty for violation of EPA's emission-reporting requirements.
$180 million is the single largest civic penalty yet levied at a company for violating the EPA's emission-reporting requirements, though it's likely a pittance compared to the money they saved by violating the Clean Air Act in the first place. But at least it's something.
Toyota to Pay a Record Fine for a Decade of Clean Air Act Violations [Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times]
Image: Downtown Gal / Wikimedia Commons (CC 3.0)
