TJX to pay $13M civil penalty for selling recalled products

Photo | Grant Welker The TJX Cos. headquarters in Framingham

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By Laura Finaldi

The TJX Companies Inc. has agreed to pay a civil penalty for selling recalled products several years ago.

The Framingham-based retail parent company, which owns the brands TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, Sierra Trading Post, and HomeSense, will pay $13 million for selling, offering for sale, and distributing previously recalled consumer products, most of which were recalled because of the risk of infant suffocation and death, according to a press release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The agreement settles charges that the company allegedly knowingly sold, offered for sale, and distributed about 1,200 recalled products from 21 separate voluntary corrective actions between March 2014 and October 2019, the commission said.

“At TJX, product safety is very important to us, and we prohibit the sale of recalled items in our stores,” the company said in a statement provided to the Worcester Business Journal. “We deeply regret that in some instances between 2014 and 2019, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place. We have made a significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen our processes, and have cooperated fully with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”

On Nov. 26, 2019, TJX and the commission issued a joint press release announcing the company had sold, offered for sale, and distributed 19 separate recalled products. But after that, the company reported to staff it discovered previous sales of three additional recalled products, according to the commission.

The commission confirmed the company has agreed to maintain a compliance program to ensure it meets the obligations of the law and the settlement going forward. That includes a program for identification, quarantine, and disposal of recalled products, maintaining internal controls to ensure compliance, reporting safety concerns, implementing corrective and preventive actions when violations are identified, and establishing senior management oversight of the compliance program.

Recalled products include the Kids II Rocking Sleepers, Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleepers, and Fisher-Price Inclined Sleeper Accessory for ultra-lite day and night play yards.