An Ikea store, illustration – XAVIER VILA / SIPA / SIPA
Little Jozef Dudek, 2 years old, was overwritten in May 2017, at his Californian home, by a
unstable chest of drawers from the Malm range, which had been the subject of a massive recall a year earlier following several comparable accidents. His parents had complained in 2018 against the furniture manufacturer
Ikeaaccused of failing to “take adequate measures to improve the safety and stability of his dressers”, the family law firm said in a statement
As part of an amicable settlement, the world’s number one furniture maker agreed on Monday to pay the child’s family $ 46 million, “possibly the most significant compensation in American history for accidental death of a child, “adds Feldman Shepherd.
Death of six children
His lawyers had already obtained in 2016 that the Swedish group pays $ 50 million to divide between three families, whose children had perished under these dressers. An IKEA spokesperson confirmed the amount to AFP. “We remain committed to working proactively and collaboratively on this very important issue of home security,” she added.
The agreement also calls for more IKEA to reach out to customers who have purchased Malm dressers or other comparable products. Ikea announced in June 2016 the recall of nearly 36 million Malm dressers in North America, then 1.6 million in China, after the deaths of six children and accidents that injured thirty others. United States.
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