Peloton Tread+ Recall Lawsuit: The Treadmill Safety Case

The Hazard and Recall

Peloton’s Tread+ is a high-end treadmill with a slatted belt raised off the floor. That design created a dangerous gap at the rear: children, pets and objects could be pulled underneath and trapped by the moving belt. After the tragic death of a six-year-old child in early 2021 and dozens of reports of children and a pet being dragged under the machine — with injuries including broken bones and friction burns — the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued an urgent warning, and Peloton recalled roughly 125,000 Tread+ machines in May 2021. Peloton initially resisted the warning before agreeing to the recall.

A treadmill that can pull a child underneath is a severe, and foreseeable, home-safety hazard.

The Penalty and Litigation

In 2023, Peloton agreed to pay a $19.065 million civil penalty — one of the largest in the safety commission’s history — to resolve charges that it knowingly failed to report the hazard to regulators promptly, as the law requires, despite receiving injury reports as far back as 2018. Regulators later approved a repair (a rear guard) for the Tread+. Separately, families who suffered injuries or the child’s death have pursued wrongful-death and product-liability claims against Peloton, which proceed on their own facts apart from the recall.

The delay in reporting — not just the defect — is what drove the record regulatory penalty.

What Owners Should Know

If you own a Tread+, keep it in a locked room away from children and pets, remove the safety key when not in use, and make sure the approved rear-guard repair has been installed. More broadly, treadmills are a leading cause of exercise-equipment injuries to children — keep kids away from any running machine. Anyone injured should keep medical records and the product’s details for a potential claim.