Takata announces $850 million restitution fund for auto manufacturers

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As part of the ongoing efforts associated with the Takata Corporation’s recall of airbags–and the connected court case–the special master appointed by the court has established an $850 million restitution fund for automobile manufacturers.

Any of those manufacturers that purchased airbags with PSAN inflators created by Takata and its subsidiaries may be eligible for compensation under the fund. Its creation is a direct result of a plea agreement Takata floated in February. It is being enforced by Eric Green, a Boston law professor and mediator, appointed as special master in the United States v. Takata Corporation criminal case proceeding through the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan. His role is to develop a formula for distributing funds to claimants, making claim determinations and supplying the court with recommendations on those allocations.

The notice dispatched from Green to affected parties has noted a guilty plea from Takata on a single count of wire fraud. As a result, they have to pay a total of $850 million to defrauded manufacturers. A separate $125 million individual Restitution fund has also been set up for those who suffered personal injury or wrongful death as a result of the airbag inflator defect., though its allocation has yet to be announced.

For manufacturers, the money involved will be funneled into a single, global fund, and associated cash will be doled out according to the percentage of all PSAN Inflators sold by Takata and purchased by said manufacturers as of Dec. 31, 2016. Green personally analyzed the third-party sales data associated with those inflators to determine that percentage as accurate.

Manufacturers are still able to disagree with the proposed allocation, though. They simply need to file objections with the Special Master in writing by Dec. 20, 2017. Otherwise, Green anticipates the last Proposed Allocation for the OEM Restitution Fund to be submitted to the court’s approval in January 2018.