Company to Pay $10 Million for Selling Emissions Systems ‘Defeat’ Devices
Rudy’s Performance Parts has settled with the federal government for $10 million after being charged with violations of the Clean Air Act for selling emissions defeat devices. Photo credit: Rudy’s Performance Parts Facebook page.
Aaron Rudolf, 37, from North Carolina, and his company, Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc., an auto parts manufacturer and seller, agreed to pay $10 million in fines and penalties for making, selling, and installing “defeat devices,” used to disable or remove the controls for emissions required in motor vehicles, according to a DOJ press release.
Emissions ‘Defeat’ Devices
Pleading guilty on Nov. 29, 2023, Rudolf admitted to tampering with around 300 diesel trucks between 2015 and 2017 by installing defeat devices to help them bypass emissions, as detailed in a November 2023 DOJ press release. Rudolf is the owner and president of Rudy’s Performance Parts.
Defeat devices, or tuners, are inserted into the trucks’ onboard diagnostic systems, disrupting their ability to monitor their emission control systems. Disrupting those controls allow more diesel exhaust emissions into the atmosphere, harming health and the environment.
Clean Air Act Violations
Tampering with vehicle emissions also violates the Clean Air Act, a federal law regulating the amount of emissions allowed for stationary and mobile sources through set National Ambient Air Quality Standards, according to the EPA.
The EPA has recently ramped up its actions against Clean Air Act violators by going after defeat device manufacturers, according to an EPA compliance initiative report.
The EPA recently sent an enforcement alert to all regulated entities to remind them of the law and warn them of legal actions if the laws were broken.
The EPA found that diesel trucks using defeat devices between 2009 and 2020 contributed 570,000 tons of excess nitrogen oxides and 5,000 tons of excess particulate matter in the atmosphere over the trucks’ lifetimes.
As a result of the EPA’s legal action, the feds have prosecuted 172 civil cases and 17 criminal cases, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in penalties and restitutions and 54 total months of incarceration, according to the EPA compliance initiative report.
Repeat Offenders
Some manufacturers are repeat offenders. Rudy’s Performance Parts is one of those, according to prosecutors. The EPA filed a separate lawsuit against the company and its owner in 2022 for the same crime as the most recent case. In that civil case, Rudolf agreed to pay a civil penalty of $7 million for violating the CAA.
A Quarter of a Million Emissions Defeat Devices
Between 2014 and 2019, Rudy’s Performance Parts sold 250,000 emissions control devices, making millions of dollars and adding an estimated one million vehicles’ worth of pollution into the atmosphere, the September DOJ release says.
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