Fisher-Price fined $975,000 over Little People toy farm

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has fined Fisher-Price Inc. $975,000 for failing to report a serious choking and aspiration hazard with a popular toy, the Little People Animal Sounds Farm.

According to the CPSC, Fisher-Price didn’t report a safety hazard to the CPSC until March 2003, six months after the manufacturer first received a report of a nail fastener coming loose from one of the toy barn’s stall doors. That was in September 2002; in the next two months, the company received nine additional reports, including one case in which the child placed the fastener in her mouth, the CPSC said. Then in December, a 14-month old child aspirated a nail fastener into his lung; he had to be taken to the hospital and undergo emergency surgery to have the fastener removed. 

By the time Fisher-Price reported the hazard to the commission, the company “was aware of at least 33 reports in which the nail fastener came loose from the stall doors,” the agency said in a press release announcing the civil penalty. 

Under federal law, companies are required to report to the CPSC within 24 hours any information that reasonably suggests a product contains a defect which could create a substantial risk of injury or presents an unreasonable risk of serious injury or deaths. 

In agreeing to the settlement, Fisher-Price denied the CPSC’s allegations that the company knowingly violated the law. The toy was recalled in 2003, with Fisher-Price and the CPSC recommending that consumers take the toy away from young children immediately and call the company for a free repair kit. Consumers can still call Fisher-Price at 866-259-7873 or order the repair kit online.