Dive Brief:
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Swedish furniture maker Ikea and the Chinese government are facing heavy criticism from Chinese consumers for limiting Ikea's recent recall of furniture involved in the deaths of six young children to North America, the New York Times reports.
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After several reports of injury and fatalities in recent years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission pressured Ikea to agree to a voluntary recall of 29 million dressers that the company says should be affixed to a wall to prevent injury.
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An Ikea spokesperson told the New York Times that limiting the recall to North America was proper because its products meet the standards in Europe, China, and elsewhere.
Dive Insight:
Some Chinese consumers are pointing out that China’s lower safety standards are the reason that there’s no recall of the problematic furniture. But this is emerging as a public relations debacle for Ikea in China, its fastest-growing market.
While the Ikea maintains that the items in question should be affixed to a wall, something that helps them meet the Chinese standard, many users fail to take that step. The dressers affected by the recall in North America have been under criticism for a while, and were the subject of a less stringent recall last year that called for “repairs” and also recommended anchoring kits. The Shenzhen Consumer Council, a government agency, also last week called for investigations and protections in regard to the safety of Ikea chests and dressers sold in China.
“The right to health is the most basic of human rights and should be subject to equal and nondiscriminatory protection in any country and place,” the council statement reads, according to the Times. “If products publicly recalled in North America are still being sold on the Chinese market, the Ikea Group must unconditionally recall these products.”
The news reports come at an inopportune time for Ikea, which is in the early stages of working to make quality and manufacturing changes that would allow it to appeal to wealthier customers. That means better, longer-lasting, and, presumably, safer furniture.
