Target penalized for selling toys with lead paint surfaces

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced this week that Target Corp. had agreed to pay a $600,000.00 civil penalty for importing and selling a variety of toys with surface lead paint.   The CPSC maintained that Target knowingly imported and sold the illegal toys from China in 2006 and 2007.  They include Kool Toyz play sets, Anima Bamboo Collection games, Happy Giddy Gardening Tools, and Sunny Patch chairs. The CPSC says the company did not take any of the appropriate steps to assure that the toys complied with restrictions on lead levels.  Sadly, if Michigan kids were injured by these unsafe toys, they would have an extremely difficult time recovering from Target, since Michigan legislators eliminated retailer liability for defectively manufactured products several years ago.