Winplus North America Inc. (Winplus) is a Ontario, California based company that manufactures car jump starters and portable power banks which contain a small battery charger system (SBCS). From August 2016 through February 2017, Winplus sold or offered for sale car jump starters and portable power banks containing non-compliant SBCS in California through Costco.

The California Energy Commission (Commission) staff tested one of these units at the California State University, Sacramento - College of Engineering Energy Efficiency Laboratory and found them to be in violation of the Appliance Efficiency Regulations governing SBCS. These SBCS were not labeled correctly and were not certified to the Appliance Efficiency Database (Database).

To settle this matter, Winplus executed a settlement agreement with the Commission on June 11, 2017, for $70,000.00. Winplus has tested and certified their products and has added the required labeling to the product and packaging. This investigation started as a result of a market survey done by Office of Compliance Assistance and Enforcement staff. The penalty monies are deposited into the Appliance Enforcement Subaccount established by SB 454 of 2011(Pavley).