Via America’s Lawyer: Peloton is being investigated by the DOJ and Homeland Security over its problematic treadmills which have caused serious injuries and even the death of a child. Attorney Stephen Luongo joins Mike Papantonio to explain how the exercise equipment company is embroiled in lawsuits over their product recalls.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: Peloton is being investigated by the department of justice and homeland security, interesting, over its problematic treadmill, which caused serious injuries and even death in a child. Meanwhile, the exercise equipment company also faces lawsuits over their product recalls. I have Stephen Luongo joining me now to talk about this. This story has been kicking around for a long time, you know, and we’ve done this story before. And for some reason, the folks, I guess, that don’t have anything to do, that want to criticize everything happens in a show like this say, well, these are just stupid kids. They’re, you know, stupid. It’s, blame it on the parents. Blame it on the stupid kid. That’s far from what’s happening here, isn’t it?
Stephen Luongo: Absolutely. And what really set this investigation off with Peloton is that a six year old was killed. That happened earlier this year in March of 2021. And then from that point, the consumer product safety commission got involved, started doing research as far as what is the design of this treadmill? The Peloton treadmill plus is really what the product is. And what they’re finding is that the interlocking slats that they have are creating a dangerous situation, as well as needing higher elevation in order for the treadmill to work properly. And that’s, what’s causing pets and small children to be harmed and unfortunately death in one case.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. So what happens, we see it happen all the time and it’s important to understand what I’m about to say here, a company gets sued or they, a regulatory agency comes after them and says, look, you’re really, you’re really doing something wrong. Most of the time, it’s not regulatory agencies because most of the regulatory agencies don’t operate properly at all. Most of them are totally dysfunctional. But the case comes in and a lawyer brings a case. Now the, what ends up happening is the company then goes to their lawyer. Some big firm, you know, where there’s a ton of silk stocking lawyers, thousands of silk stocking corporate white shoe lawyers. And they’re told whatever you do say it ain’t our fault. It’s not our fault. And the reason they do that is because they get billable hours. If they can create a lawsuit by convincing that producer, that it’s not, it’s not their fault. Then they start making money. We see it all the time, don’t we, Steve?
Stephen Luongo: We have a similar timeline in this case. So we have the death of the six-year-old in March. We have in April, the consumer product commission saying your product is dangerous telling Peloton to take it off the market. Immediately their CFO, John Foley, comes out and makes a public statement saying, no, there’s no reason to stop using our treadmill. It’s perfectly fine. Continue to use it as is. And then a month later they recall that statement and say, you know what, we were wrong and we should have recalled the product a month ago.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. And we see it time and time again. I mean, we see it to where some big national law firm has to bill, you know, $800 million a year just to keep their doors open. So they get a product like this. The first advice they get is deny, deny, deny. It’s not your product that caused the injury. It’s the stupidity of a parent, it’s the stupidity of a child. It’s not your problem. And that’s exactly how this unfolded, didn’t it? And then all of a sudden, they say, wow, you gave us some bad advice. That’s my guess here of what, what happened, because we see it all the time.
Stephen Luongo: You’re not off, you’re not wrong and you’re not far off because now because of the CEO coming out, making that statement and then fighting the commission and delaying the recall of the product, they are under investigation by the SEC. That’s what brought it back in the news, the filing on Friday. And then what was new was that the department of justice is investigating them as well as what you mentioned earlier, the homeland security.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Okay. So the best advice that I give to a company like Peloton, I mean, sometimes we’re asked to talk to these corporations saying, where are we screwing up? They screw up by going to these silk stocking law firms that have every interest in billable hours to perpetuate their business, to keep their doors open. So they get involved in this long-term litigation, ends up costing the company a billion dollars just in law, just in the cost of hiring lawyers for them. And at the end of the day they have to pay anyway. This is exactly what happened with Peloton. Peloton is a decent company. They make a good product. I mean, they really do. Less than 6% of the people that, that have the Peloton bike actually have this product.
Stephen Luongo: Right.
Mike Papantonio: So it’s not, it’s not that big of a hit for them. Thank you for joining me. Okay.
Stephen Luongo: Yes, sir. Thank you.
