Cobb Tuning and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have reached a massive settlement after it was found out the popular tuner was selling “defeat devices” that allow customers to bypass the emissions controls in their cars. It’s not really something anyone should be doing. Now, the Texas-based company must pay a $2,914,000 penalty and comply with a slew of new rules and regulations – including offering buybacks to owners who bought the illegal devices.
This massive settlement comes after a lawsuit was filed in 2022 by the EPA. It alleged Cobb sold over 81,000 AccessPort tuner devices that could reprogram a car’s emission controls with just a few clicks, according to the agency. The suit also brought up that Cobb sold about 8,400 aftermarket exhausts that weren’t compliant with the law either. The systems either “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,” the EPA said in a statement.
These aftermarket tuning products were used on a wide range of vehicles built by BMW, Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru and Volkswagen, according to the EPA’s statement.
To get into compliance with the EPA, Cobb must also stop building, selling and installing defeat devices of any sort. Don’t worry, turner enthusiast. Cobb can still sell the AccessPort, but they have to be covered by an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board that shows the products do not increase emissions above allowable levels.
Here’s what else Cobb will have to do to get in compliance with the EPA settlement (it’s a lot):
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.
In a blog post on Cobb’s website – a Cobb Blog, if you will – Jeff King, CEO and President of the company had this to say:
“We are proud of the leadership position that COBB Tuning has established providing emissions certified performance packages to the automotive enthusiast. We proactively started our Green Speed initiative with the goal of developing market leading, fully emissions certified performance solutions for our enthusiasts’ customers and their vehicles long before EPA contacted us about their concerns regarding how certain COBB products could be used – in an unintended manner –to sidestep vehicle emissions requirements. We have proactively worked with EPA to address these concerns and view this settlement as a next step in our Green Speed initiative.”
Mr. King continued, “By entering into this settlement, called a Consent Decree, we will be able to dedicate more time and organizational resources to the future of the performance tuning/vehicle customization market, and our commitment to delivering reliable, fun, and emissions certified performance solutions to the automotive enthusiasts.
He concluded by saying “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. 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. 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. 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. Our entire product line is fully emissions compliant. Our Power Packages and calibrations/tunes deliver exciting performance and drivability enhancements for our customers’ vehicles. To date, we have received over 200 CARB EOs as well as multiple other third-party emissions certifications that cover our entire product range.”
If we’ve learned anything here, it’s that you really shouldn’t try to fuck with the EPA for some extra horsepower. It’s not worth it, and boy will they come down hard on you.