New York: A North American unit of Japanese machinery maker Kubota Corp. admitted to falsely labeling some of its replacement parts as being made in the United States, agreeing to pay a 2-million-dollar penalty, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Friday.

This is the largest penalty imposed in any similar case in the United States.

According to the FTC, since at least 2021, Kubota North America Corp. has labeled thousands of replacement parts for its tractors and other agricultural equipment as made in the United States, even though they were made entirely overseas.

In addition, after the company moved manufacturing for some parts to other countries, it failed to update the products’ labeling to reflect that change, leaving them labeled as “made in USA,” the commission said.

Kubota agreed not to make U.S.-origin claims for any product unless it can show that the product’s final assembly or all significant processing takes place in the United States.

For products labeled as being made in the United States, Kubota will make disclosure of the extent to which the products contain foreign parts or ingredients.

JIJI Press