The practice, called channel stuffing, was the subject of a Justice Department investigation that ended last year with the deferred-prosecution agreement.

The accusations against the company involved a practice known as "channel stuffing."

The commission said that without the channel stuffing, the company would have missed earnings forecasts in 8 of the 12 quarters in that period.

In general, channel stuffing is legal, but not smart business because the wholesalers eventually need to cut back on their orders to sell the products they have already bought.

The practice is called channel stuffing.

Ms. Aversano's assertions helped fuel a debate over "channel stuffing," a business practice of shipping products not to real customers but to distribution channels.

Even mild channel stuffing can spiral out of control as sales works to make up for prior over-selling.

Corporations have been known to engage in channel stuffing and hide such activities from their investors.

He also offered incentives for retailers to sell products that would have otherwise been sold later in the year, a practice known as "channel stuffing".

Therefore, it is possible for the manufacturer to inflate sales numbers by requiring dealers to accept more inventory than desired in a practice called channel stuffing.