Company pays million-dollar fine in US for recalled kids' bracelets

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US sports apparel company Reebok has agreed to pay a one-million-dollar (634,000-euro) fine for giving away hundreds of thousands of lead-laced bracelets that killed one child, the US product safety watchdog said Tuesday.

"The penalty settles allegations that Reebok International Ltd imported and distributed charm bracelets that contained toxic levels of lead," the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The bracelets were given away for free with the purchase of children's shoes.

A worldwide recall was announced in March 2006 of more than 500,000 of the Chinese-made bracelets, including 300,000 in the United States, after a four-year-old American boy died after swallowing the pendant on the jewelry.

The fine is the biggest that...