John Deere Settlement 2005
John Deere Settles for SORE Violations for $315,000.00
During the Spring 2003 Landscape Industry Show at the Long Beach Convention Center, Mobile Source Enforcement Section staff visited the booth of a local dealer and noticed that a hedge trimmer by John Deere was equipped with a non-California certified engine. A subsequent investigation showed that John Deere dealers throughout California had sold 597 non-compliant portable power products and 174 lawn movers. Fortunately, John Deere was able to recall 371 of the portable power products and 129 of the lawn movers from dealers and consumers in California. The portable power products had slipped through insufficient blocks in the parts ordering system. For the lawn mowers, John Deere had relied on the dealers in California to order only ARB compliant units. Both the portable power product ordering system and the whole goods ordering system for the mowers have since been rewritten to avoid future sales of non-compliant products through the John Deere dealer net work. As part of the settlement, John Deere paid $315,000.00 into the Air Pollution Control Fund.