Toyota Motor Korea was caught for falsely advertising that its vehicles that were missing major parts unlike the ones sold in the U.S. were selected as the ‘Top Safety Pick (TSP)’ just like the ones sold in the U.S.
Fair Trade Commission (FTC) exposed Toyota Motor Korea’s attempt to deceive consumers and it ordered Toyota Motor Korea to stop relevant advertisement and levied $728,000 (817 million KRW) fine.
Since October of 2014, Toyota Motor Korea advertised through catalogs and reports that its 2015 and 2016 RAV4s that were released in South Korea were selected as ‘TSP’ by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). RAV4s that were released in the U.S. were selected as TSP as they were equipped with safety brackets. However, RAV4s that were released in South Korea did not have safety brackets and fell short of TSP standard.
“2014 RAV4s that were released in the U.S. did not have safety brackets and were not selected as TSP as they received ‘poor rating’ during collision tests.” said Song Jung-won, who is the head of FTC’s Seoul Office. “However 2015 and 2016 RAV4s received ‘good rating’ during collision tests as they were equipped with safety brackets and were selected as TSP.
FTC came to a conclusion that Toyota Motor Korea hid and omitted the fact that its RAV4s were missing safety brackets that could deceive consumers into thinking that RAV4s released in South Korea also satisfy every safety requirement of TSP.
Toyota Motor Korea wrote ‘such picture and information included in this catalog can be different from models released in South Korea’ in a small font on the back of its catalog. However, FTC thought that this writing was not directly related to information from advertisement and that it was difficult for consumers to understand accurate meaning of this writing.
“We sanctioned Toyota Motor Korea for falsely advertising its vehicles sold in South Korea even though they were lacking important safety specification.” said Song Jung-won. “Just by including the fact that information from an advertisement can be different from actual cars does not exempt Toyota Motor Korea from this violation.”
Staff Reporter Yoo, Seonil | ysi@etnews.com