The American Petroleum Institute (API) recently settled a lawsuit against Tailor Made Oil and its owners, William and Rebecca Selkirk, who had falsely claimed their oil had been licensed to use the API engine oil quality certification marks.
Rather than go to trial against API, the defendants have admitted that they counterfeited API's engine oil quality certification marks and made false performance claims for Tailor Made-branded engine oil sold to consumers and multiple branches of the military.
"API will continue to protect consumers from false claims that low-quality engine oils meet API's tough performance requirements," said John Modine, API's director for Global Industry Services. "We constantly test engine oil samples taken from around the world to determine if they meet the API performance claims."
As part of their settlement with API, William and Rebecca Selkirk have agreed to a 10-year ban on bottling or marketing any engine oil for diesel engines and for use in gasoline engines in cars, vans, trucks and motorcycles. They have also agreed to a 10-year ban on selling any products to the U.S. government.
API has published engine oil quality standards for automotive and heavy-duty diesel engines for more than 60 years and licenses oils against the standards under the API Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System (EOLCS). Currently, more than 500 engine oil marketers have licensed engine oils under the EOLCS. Licensed marketers are authorized to display the API engine oil certification marks on licensed oils sold in packages and in bulk. Consumers are encouraged to look for these marks when purchasing oil.
For more information, visit www.api.org.
