Horizon treadmills sped up on their own in 874 reports, and the maker now owes $16.875 million

Horizon T101-05 treadmills unexpectedly accelerated, changed speed or stopped without any input from the person on the belt, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission counted at least 874 such reports between March 2018 and October 2022, including at least 71 reports of injury. On August 4, 2026, the commission published a $16.875 million civil penalty settlement with Johnson Health Tech Trading, Inc., the company that imported the machines, over a failure to report the problem on time.

The penalty targets the delay, not the defect. The roughly 192,000 treadmills involved are still in homes and gyms.

Falls on a moving belt: the T101-05 failure

The commission’s enforcement release says the T101-05 “can unexpectedly accelerate, change speed, or stop without user input, posing a fall hazard.” A belt that surges under a runner’s feet or halts mid-stride throws body weight forward, and the recall notice the company jointly issued in October 2022 lists injuries that ranged from bruises and abrasions to two broken bones.

The recall itself, dated October 27, 2022, covered about 192,000 units sold in the United States from March 2018 through October 2022 at prices of $600 to $1,000, plus about 7,000 in Canada. Two variants are covered, and the serial prefix is the quickest way to tell whether a machine is in scope: the China-built T101-05 with serial numbers beginning TM734 and the Vietnam-built version beginning TM486. The remedy is a free USB drive carrying a software repair, requested through Horizon at 888-223-1045 or by email to [email protected]. The units were sold through Dick’s Sporting Goods, Johnson Fitness & Wellness stores, Amazon and the company’s own websites, so a treadmill bought secondhand or through a gym liquidation can carry the same serial prefix without any recall letter ever having reached its owner.

Timeline of a late report

The settlement agreement, filed under CPSC docket 26-C0004, gives dates that a reader can lay against the recall. According to the agreement, reports began arriving in March 2018 and a root-cause investigation opened in September 2020. Production changes followed in February 2021 and September 2021. The company filed a Full Report with the commission on March 9, 2022, after commission staff asked for one, and the public recall came seven and a half months after that.

The commission’s release adds that the mitigation steps in 2021 did not end the incidents, which kept coming until the recall. The company did not admit a violation. The agreement records its position that it kept a compliance program and took reasonable steps to monitor and respond to treadmill reports, and the penalty is a negotiated figure rather than a court judgment.

The reporting rule behind an eight-figure number

The obligation sits in Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act. The statute, at 15 U.S.C. 2064(b), tells manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers that hold information reasonably supporting the conclusion that a product has a defect creating a substantial hazard to “immediately inform” the commission. The word is “immediately,” with no grace period written in, and the agency reads a firm’s knowledge as including what its own complaint files show, not only what its lawyers have concluded.

Acting Chairman Peter Feldman said in a statement dated August 4 that the firm “failed to timely report treadmill hazards despite hundreds of incidents and dozens of injuries,” and that the agency is “returning to a coherent civil penalty regime, one that is predictable, proportionate, and grounded in statutory penalty factors.” He added that “repeat offenders should expect greater consequences.”

Beyond the money, the order requires a product safety professional, procedures to review incident data for reporting duties, and three years of annual compliance reports. An affiliate, Johnson Health Tech North America, Inc., is covered too.

A provisional settlement with a 30-day payment clock

The Federal Register notice published on August 6, 2026 describes the deal as provisionally accepted and invited written objections by August 21. Under its terms the agreement becomes final 15 days after publication if none arrive, and the $16,875,000 is due within 30 calendar days of the commission’s final order, by wire transfer through pay.gov. A published final order was not located in the sources read for this article, so the sum is best described as agreed and owed under a signed settlement rather than confirmed as paid.

For anyone who bought a Horizon T101-05 in those four and a half years, the penalty changes nothing about the machine in the basement. The recall from October 27, 2022 remains the operative instruction: stop using an affected treadmill until the software repair has been installed, and check the serial number against the two prefixes listed on the recall page.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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