Tzumi Innovations Will Pay $1.5 Million Due To Selling Unregistered Antimicrobial Household Products During The Covid-19 Pandemic
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Lisa F. Garcia, Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), announced today that the United States has filed and simultaneously settled a counterclaim against TZUMI INNOVATIONS, LLC (“TZUMI”) for illegally distributing and selling millions of products claiming to have antimicrobial properties in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”) during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. TZUMI sold these products without submitting them to EPA for registration, a mandatory process that allows EPA to assess the safety and effectiveness of the products. TZUMI specifically targeted lower-income customers for sale of one of its products, “Wipe Out! Wipes.”
The proposed stipulation and order of settlement (“settlement”) agreed to by TZUMI includes payment of a $1.5 million civil penalty, the largest FIFRA civil penalty ever obtained in a judicial settlement and one of the largest FIFRA penalties obtained by EPA in any context.
