Millionaire fines Mattel Colombia for not warning risk of rocking chairs in which 30 babies died in the United States

This Thursday, April 7, the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce announced that it imposed a fine of 700 million pesos on Mattel Colombia for violating consumers' rights, failing to inform them of the real and imminent risk associated with the company's Rock'n Play Sleeper rocking chair Fisher-Price. This is a controversy that has been going on, internationally, since 2019, when 30 babies in the United States died of suffocation due to the design of the product.

At that time, more than five million rocking chairs were collected from American homes on the alert of the authorities. The warning transcended internationally and, in Colombia, the authorities also realized the danger and questioned how many of these rocking chairs were in the country and, likewise, ordered them to be removed from the market.

In April 2019, Mattel Colombia confirmed to SIC that there were 1,689 cribs in Colombian homes in the country and SIC also ordered them to be picked up. However, by April 17, 2019, Mattel had only collected three rocking chairs out of 1,689 and, in addition, they were placing conditions on customers who wanted a refund for their purchase, which is why the SIC issued a new warning.

Since then, SIC has been on the lookout for Mattel Colombia's actions to collect the rocking chairs with a security campaign. However, on April 7, three years after the first warning, the Superintendency stated that when carrying out the campaign, the company did not inform consumers that it was a matter of saving lives, but indicated that the measures corresponded to an extension of the guarantee.

According to the statement released this morning by SIC, Mattel Colombia “intervened in the campaign by ordering consumers to remove 2 connections that were part of the product in order to render it unusable. In some cases, it required that it be kept for at least 6 months and in other cases it requested that the product be resumed from Mattel's offices. Only when all of the above were accredited, would a Fisher Price toy kit be delivered or in some cases the money returned, contrary to the provisions of Decree 1074 of 2015.”

The SIC explained that there are 69 active security campaigns in the country in the country, including that of Fisher-Price's Rock'n Play Sleeper rocking chair and explained that, in these cases, companies must explain to consumers the real reasons why products need to be recovered. If the problem can be solved, the company must pick up the product, fix it and return it to the consumer; but since this was not the case with this rocking chair, each one had to be collected and the Colombians had to return the money.

In 2021, SIC had already warned Mattel that for failing to comply with what was ordered he could face a penalty of up to 2,000 minimum wages. At the time, SIC noted that Mattel Colombia “does not report on the risk of death associated with them, implying that it is an extension of warranty and not a security campaign, in addition to setting a deadline for consumers to be part of the security campaign and requiring documents not authorized by the Consumer Statute”.

Now, the company will have to pay a fine of 700 million pesos for not letting consumers know the real risk that these rocking chairs pose to the lives of babies.

It should be recalled that, when this happened in the United States, the Fisher-Price company noted that the deaths of the babies occurred because the product was not used correctly, arguing that the minors did not have their belts secured, which allowed them to turn over and become unable to breathe. Despite this, they voluntarily agreed to remove the rocking chairs from the sale and pick up the ones that had been delivered.

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