Retailers Just Don't Get It.

Today should reveal the outcome of what lawyers are calling "the largest group consumer compensation claim ever seen in British courts".

What happened? Well, China is a humid place. And Britain buys cheap leather sofas from China. But, because they're cheap and because of the muggy air ... sofas in transit were developing so much mould they were unsaleable on arrival.

Of course the Chinese were unhappy about having their sofas rejected. And so they solved the problem by stapling sachets of DMF, a chemical that inhibits mould, into the frames ... and even embedded them into the cushion covers.

Guess what? Not only is DMF toxic to fungus ... it is so toxic to humans it causes serious rashes and even burns in some of the people that purchased these little beasties. This all came to a head when a customer of one of the three prominent retailers that sell the offending articles developed a nasty rash and persisted in her quest to solve the problem. Eventually a dermatologist from Liverpool recognised the common denominator was recent purchases of cheap leather sofas and dug deep enough to reveal the cause.

It seems that, when the sachets were exposed to heat, the chemical evaporated and created serious injury. The retailers involved very responsibly advertised the possibility of more extensive related suffering ... and this led to more than 3500 other people coming forward. All these unfortunate souls were offered refunds or exchange.

Then the European Union took more decisive action to contain the damage and prevent this from happening in the future. Of course the legal situation is ongoing as a result, but it appears that one of the retailers is in administration.

Seems like the retail sector as a whole is really battling to stay viable. One wonders why?