Tiffany and Company Agrees to Pay Civil Penalty for Failure to Report Hazardous Infant Teether Rattles

WASHINGTON , D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that Tiffany and Company, of New York, N.Y., has agreed to pay a $262,500 civil penalty to settle allegations that the company failed to report a hazard with its infant teether rattles. The penalty has been provisionally accepted by the Commission.

CPSC alleged that Tiffany and Company failed to report to the government in a timely manner that the center bar on the Farm Teether Rattle could break, releasing small beads and animal figures, which posed a choking and aspiration hazard to babies.

Tiffany and Company received at least three reports of defective solder joints in the teethers between November 2003 and February 2004. The company stopped selling the product in March 2004. In one incident, a baby was reported to have mouthed a small animal figure that fell off of the teether rattle.

The firm failed to notify consumers who had purchased the teether and did not report the problem to CPSC until after the Commission had opened its own investigation and requested Tiffany to do so.

The firm recalled about 3,700 of the teether rattles, which sold for $150 each, in February 2005. For more information about the recall, contact Tiffany and Company at (800) 464-5000 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.tiffany.com

In agreeing to settle the matter, Tiffany denies it violated the Consumer Product Safety Act by failing to report defects with its Farm Teether Rattles in a timely manner.