United States v. Mirama Enterprises, Inc., a California Corporation Dba Aroma House-Wares Co.

We consider the appropriate range of penalties for violating the reporting requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 2064 (b), 2068(a)(4), 2069(a)(1).

Facts

Mirama Enterprises, d/b/a Aroma Housewares Co. (“Aroma”), is a California corporation that distributes electric kitchen appliances. Aroma distributed between 30,000 and 40,000 juice extractors in the United States. The juicers employed a rapidly spinning metal grater, whose sharp teeth pulverized fruits and vegetables that were inserted through a plastic chute.

Aroma began receiving consumer reports of failed juicers. Exploding juicers, the reports claimed, “[threw] with great violence pieces of the clear plastic cover and shreds of the razor-sharp separator screen as far'as eight feet....” One consumer called the juicer “an unsafe and dangerous machine which exploded in [his] face.” A flying blade sliced the hand of another. And one injured woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she stayed overnight, and sustained permanent damage to her fingers, hand and arm. United States v. Mirama Enters., Inc., 185 F.Supp.2d 1148, 1153-54 (S.D.Cal.2002). In all, Aroma received complaints from…