Australia’s federal court has ordered Mercedes-Benz Group’s local subsidiary to pay a fine of 12.5 million Australian dollars (about RMB 8.49 million) for failing to inform customers of the urgency of a recall of vehicles fitted with “potentially fatal” defective airbags made by Japan’s Takata Corp, the country’s competition regulator said Friday.
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a statement that the German automaker admitted violating Australian consumer laws by failing to clearly communicate with customers about the urgency of the recall, as required by the country’s highway traffic safety agency’s Takata Airbag Recall Notice.
In conversations with 27 consumers, Mercedes-Benz employees described the recall as a “precautionary measure” or implied that the type of airbags used in Mercedes-Benz vehicles did not cause any accidents or injuries, but such statements were inaccurate, the ACCC said.
The regulator said the Takata airbag defect was a “potentially fatal problem. It is “vital to the safety of Australian drivers and passengers that manufacturers take the risks seriously and communicate them clearly to consumers.”
