- Cobb Tuning has reached a settlement with the EPA over a lawsuit concerning "defeat devices" sold by the brand.
- The Texas-based firm must pay over $2.9 million to the EPA and conform to a slew of orders mandated by the government agency.
- Those orders include offering buy-backs for non-conforming devices and destroying any illegal devices Cobb has in its possession.
Popular tuner company Cobb Tuning on Monday reached a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency over its sale of "defeat devices" that allow customers to bypass emissions controls in their vehicles. The settlement will require the Texas-based firm to pay a penalty of $2,914,000, and conform to a slew of new rules that include offering buy-backs to owners of non-conforming devices.
The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by the EPA back in 2022 over Cobb's sale of over 81,000 tuner devices—known as Accessports—that could reprogram a car's emission controls and performance metrics with just a few button presses. The suit also mentions Cobb's sale of around 8,400 aftermarket exhausts that "either contained fewer three-way catalysts than the original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-designed exhaust systems or replaced the vehicles’ three-way catalysts with aftermarket catalysts that are not as effective as the OEM after-treatment systems," according to the EPA.
By agreeing to a settlement, Cobb Tuning must stop manufacturing, selling, and installing defeat devices of any kind. The EPA says the company can still sell Accessports, but they must be covered by an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board "demonstrating that the products do not increase emissions above allowable levels."
Additionally, Cobb must comply with a big list of orders from the EPA to ensure its non-conforming Accessports disappear from the face of the earth. Here's the full list of instructions issued by the EPA to Cobb:
- Remove any delete features from its custom tuning software and, to the extent possible, force updates to end-users to remove the delete features;
- Destroy any defeat devices remaining in its possession;
- Cease providing technical support for any defeat device products;
- Deny all warranty claims for any defeat device products;
- Instruct authorized dealers to no longer provide technical support or honor warranty claims pertaining to any defeat device products;
- Revise all marketing materials to strike any information relating to replacing, defeating, bypassing, or rendering inoperative any emission control;
- Not sell or transfer any intellectual property associated with any defeat device products;
- Revise all marketing materials to strike any information relating to replacing, defeating, bypassing, or rendering inoperative any emission control;
- Notify authorized dealers and known customers of any defeat device products of the settlement using specified language that informs the authorized dealers and known customers that the products at issue violate the Clean Air Act;
- Notify Cobb Tuning’s officers and employees of the Clean Air Act prohibitions using specified language which explains the Clean Air Act’s defeat device prohibition;
- Request that Cobb Tuning’s employees forfeit any aftermarket defeat devices in their possession and require that its officers forfeit, permanently delete and uninstall, and destroy any aftermarket defeat devices in their possession;
- Require Cobb Tuning to offer to buy back any defeat devices possessed by Cobb Tuning’s employees, which Cobb Tuning must then destroy;
- Conduct a Clean Air Act compliance training for Cobb Tuning’s officers, employees, contractors, and consultants.
“As a company, we take our emissions stewardship seriously, and proactively addressed in real time each area of concern that the EPA identified with how some of our legacy products could be used in an unintended manner," president and CEO Jeff King said in a statement.
"We had to make difficult choices along the way regarding how and when to make changes to or discontinue certain products that the EPA identified as concerning," King continued. "We always focused our decision-making process on implementing changes in a way that had the best interests of our enthusiast customers, distribution partners, and the environment in mind. Sometimes those were tough choices, which required immediate action in order to address EPA concerns."
King goes onto say Cobb's current lineup of product is fully emissions-compliant.
"I am pleased to report that those product changes are behind us, and both our customers and distribution partners can be confident purchasing Cobb products," he said.
