Cosco to Pay Fine Over Baby-Product Defects

Cosco Inc., one of the nation’s largest makers of baby products, has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle charges that it failed to promptly report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission serious product defects that led to hundreds of injuries and two deaths. In a settlement to be announced today, the CPSC alleges that Cosco, a major manufacturer of baby strollers, car seats, cribs and high chairs, redesigned or relabeled five products after receiving consumer complaints and reports of more than 300 injuries. But Cosco never notified the commission as required by law until the agency’s staff learned of the problems and asked for information, according to the filing. For example, the complaint says that Cosco knew of 24 injuries to infants trapped in misassembled, full-sized metal cribs over a two year period before an 8-month-old died of asphyxiation in June 1997.