Canada’s Motor Vehicle Safety Act is clear: a consumer must be notified, within 60 days, that their vehicle is affected by a safety recall. It is precisely this article that the manufacturer violated, while the pandemic was in full swing.
Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. therefore pleaded guilty to the six criminal charges against her. In a press release, Transport Canada says the company admitted to failing to send “notices of safety-related defects” within a 60-day period, as required by law. This guilty plea results in a fine of $360,000.
However, it is important to specify that the manufacturer ended up sending the defect notices to the owners of the vehicles affected, but within a longer period than the 60 days provided for by law. Consumers affected by this breach have therefore already been notified that their vehicle was affected by a recall. “Hyundai Canada recognizes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company did not always meet specific timing requirements set out in applicable regulations in a limited number of cases.
However, we immediately corrected the situation and took responsibility.” , underlined the company in response to the press release from Transport Canada. According to the manufacturer, “no security incident has occurred related to this situation”.
Although it is impossible to know precisely which recalls were the subject of a breach by the manufacturer, Transport Canada says that these six defect notices affect nearly 300,000 vehicles in Canada. They would relate to the risk of vehicle fires, reduced braking performance and a sudden loss of engine power. These offenses date back to 2020 and 2021. Transport Canada now considers this case closed.
For information, Transport Canada has issued 749 recalls affecting the automotive industry. In total, more than 3.8 million vehicles, tires or child restraint systems have been affected by these recalls.
