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Green Light for Sofa Rash Claims
06 June 2008
Some of the UK’s largest furniture retailers are facing the biggest defective product Group Litigation Order ever recorded and a bill in excess of £6m in damages after over a thousand people suffered horrific skin reactions from sitting on Chinese manufactured leather sofas. Despite this, there has still been no product recall.
Today, at Nottingham Crown Court, Mr Justice Treacy made a Group Litigation Order (GLO) which will ensure all the cases will be dealt with collectively and could help victims receive compensation within the next six months.
More than 1200 people have lodged legal proceedings after Chinese-manufactured sofas sold by high street retailers including Argos, Land of Leather and Walmsleys caused a range of symptoms including allergies, rashes and burns, from contact with chemicals contained in sachets fitted inside the furniture.
Russell Jones & Walker, the solicitors who obtained the GLO and are dealing with more than 750 claims believes up to 50,000 households could have been sold affected furniture and has criticised Trading Standards for its slow reactions and called for BERR* to step in and coordinate an effort to protect the consumer.
Despite reports of a fault with sofas in August 2007 so far only Argos has written to its customers to inform them that sofas purchased from their stores could be dangerous. Today, Russell Jones & Walker criticised legal representatives of one retailer who described the suggestion that all customers should be written too as ‘an Alice in Wonderland suggestion.’
Richard Langton of Russell Jones & Walker believes that many of the sofa related injuries could have been avoided if action had been taken sooner. He said: “We estimate that more than 100,000 Linkwise sofas have been sold and at present there is no way of knowing which ones have been contaminated. The long term effects of exposure to the fungicide contained in the sofas is not yet known but we’ve had reports of our clients being hospitalised, one alleged fatality and an individual who said she was almost driven to suicide because doctors were unable to find the cause of her medical problem or treat it. In many cases the pain is like the worst sort of sunburn or scalding form acid or boiling water. It has lasted for months or years if people don’t realise the cause. Medical treatments don’t work until the sofa is removed from their lives
It is important to remember that there are likely to be other, smaller retailers involved in this and with these sofas already appearing on Ebay, we need to be careful that the effects of these sofas does not reach epidemic proportions. The quickest way to avoid this would be to issue a product recall notice.”
Investigations have revealed that the ‘sofa burns’ are being caused by Dimethyl Fumarate, a chemical known to cause skin irritation. This fungicide is contained within a sachet which is placed inside the sofas in order to protect against mould during storage and transit.
Affected batch numbers can be checked here
Anyone wishing to receive advice with respect to information on possibly making a claim should contact Russell Jones & Walker on 0800 884 0324. Alternatively complete our short Sofa Rash Enquiry Form and we will contact you
* BERR – The Department for Business and Regulatory Reform - is responsible for Consumer Protection. It issued a RAPEX notice in October 2007 warning all EU countries of the Linkwise product defect.