Dive Brief:

• Home-improvement retailer Lumber Liquidators Thursday said it would halt sales of laminate flooring from China over concerns of potentially toxic levels of formaldehyde levels.

• The company, which has been under fire, facing government investigations, possible criminal charges, and lawsuits over its sale and marketing of the flooring, also said it had hired former Federal Bureau Investigation chief Louis Freeh to help with its own investigation.

• The safety concerns were raised last month by a 60 Minutes report, which included independent tests that found problematic levels of toxins. The company has said those tests are misleading and inaccurate and had stood by its flooring till now.

Dive Insight:

After watchdog investigations from the press and from government, a host of legal, even criminal, troubles, and a tanked stock price, Lumber Liquidators appears to be buckling under pressure and halting sales of its problematic flooring, at least for the time being.

Freeh’s hire is a sign the retailer is finally taking the issue seriously, but it could be too late for the company to recover from what has become a messy public relations (and possibly safety) debacle.