Toyota Motor Corp. will pay $180 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department complaint that the car maker violated reporting requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act for about a decade.
The DOJ’s complaint alleged several Toyota entities violated the Act’s requirements for reporting emissions-related defects in automobiles from about 2005 to at least 2015.
The department said Thursday that the company delayed the filing of an estimated 78 emissions defect information reports, which were related to millions of vehicles. It also said Toyota didn’t file 20 voluntary emissions recall reports and over 200 quarterly reports that are supposed to update the EPA on recalls.
The DOJ said Toyota’s fine is the biggest civil penalty tied to violating said emission reporting requirements from the EPA.
“For a decade Toyota failed to report mandatory information about potential defects in their cars to the EPA, keeping the agency in the dark and evading oversight,” Susan Bodine, the regulatory agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance assistant administrator, said in prepared remarks.
