Peloton treadmills are embroiled in a rare battle with the U.S. government.
The fitness equipment maker rejected a warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which had urged people to stop using step-and-treadmills after 39 reports of injuries to children and pets, including in March. death.
The company claims the CPSC notification is "inaccurate and misleading" because it is likely to continue using Tread+ as long as people follow existing instructions to keep children and pets away from Tread+ "at all times."
US Consumer Products The Council of Safety Commissioners (CPSC) has issued a warning about at least one incident of children being injured while adults were using treadmills. The European Commission says you cannot avoid risks by simply locking the Pedal+ when not in use. The organization advises those who continue to use the machine to keep it in a locked room and unplug it when not in use.
The Peloton treadmill company also said that it has a security key precisely to prevent the machine from being opened, and there are multiple layers of warnings to keep children and pets away, including during classes and the machine itself. It claimed that by requiring the CPSC to jointly declare compliance with the safety directive, the Commission "unfairly" characterized attempts to cooperate and correct the record as delaying tactics. Officials were said to be unwilling to engage in "meaningful" talks before the warning was made public.
According to anonymous officials who spoke to the Washington Post, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had recommended a recall of the Tread+ series of treadmills and had consulted with Peloton over the past week on the wording of the warning. The commission had asked Peloton to help with the safety investigation, but instead used a subpoena to obtain the contact information of the victims' parents after the company cited privacy protections.
CPSC recalls are generally voluntary, but the agency can prosecute if it believes a recall is necessary. Whether this happened to Peloton is unclear. Safety is an issue with all treadmills (an estimated 22,500 people were injured in the U.S. in 2019), and it's unclear if there are any issues with Peloton's hardware that would warrant a warning or recall. This chain of events is concerning, but may also be a product of Peloton's relative popularity. For now, it's best to be careful when Peloton and the Consumer Product Safety Commission argue.
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