Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, has issued a permanent injunction and ordered a recall of flanges made by Spanish company, Ulma Forja – part of the Mondragon Corporation – and its US subsidiary, Ulma Piping. The Court found that Ulma, which provides flanges for use in US pipelines, refineries and chemical plants, “intended to deceive customers by mislabelling the flanges” and even did so after 2017, when the original lawsuit was filed.
In ordering the permanent injunction, Judge Hanen stated that “an injunction would greatly benefit the public” and that “[m]islabelling the qualities and characteristics of a product like the flanges in question which are used throughout the petroleum industry, is a dangerous practice.” He added that the “public deserves truthful product information especially on products as critical as these flanges potentially are.”
