£20 million injury compensation payout to “Toxic Sofa” victims

Retailers admit liability for chemical burns to thousands of customers

Victims of the so-called “Toxic Sofa” injury scandal are in line to receive payouts of between £1,200 and £9,000 for their injuries after a number of furniture retailers accepted liability for selling the Chinese-made sofas, which contained harmful chemicals.  The total value of the compensation package could reach £20 million, to be split between an estimated 2,000 people who have suffered burns from an anti-fungal chemical that was applied in error to the furniture.

Chemical dimethyl fumarate

The long-running Toxic Sofas saga involves up to 100,000 sofas made in China that were treated with the potentially harmful chemical dimethyl fumarate to stop mould growing on the leather whilst the sofas were in storage.  Unfortunately for the people who bought those sofas, dimethyl fumarate can cause a nasty reaction when it comes into contact with the skin, leading to blistering, peeling and redness of the affected area.

The Chinese firms, Linkwise and Eurosofa, sold their products to many of the UK’s best-known furniture retailers, such as Argos, Homebase, Walmsleys and Land of Leather.  The new agreement, reached at the end of April, would see customers of the first three companies compensated if they suffered any injuries due to exposure to dimethyl fumarate.  However the estimated 300 customers of the now-defunct company Land of Leather, which went into administration in 2009, are unlikely to see any pay out for their injuries, following a separate court ruling earlier this year.  Those customers are thought to be taking their cases to the court of appeal.

Chemical burns injury compensation claims

When you buy a product, be it a piece of furniture, an electrical item, or even a hair or beauty product, naturally you expect to be able to use it, following the instructions, without suffering an injury.  Manufacturers and retailers have obligations to make sure their products are thoroughly tested and have passed stringent assessments before they can be sold in the UK.  But problems can and do occur, as happened in the case of the “Toxic Sofas”, where several thousand people were injured, some of them quite badly.

At Camps Solicitors we believe that if you are injured by something you have bought that has an inherent fault in its design, or a defect that made it in some way unsafe to use, then you should be able to claim compensation from the manufacturer or the retailer for your injuries.  Our personal injury solicitors can help you to make a claim for an injury you have suffered within the past 3 years that has been caused by a faulty product.  We make claims for our clients under a conditional fee agreement, which means that win or lose, you won’t have to pay us a penny for our services, as we recover all of our costs separate to your compensation.

For more information on making an injury claim, call Camps Solicitors today on 0800 092 8586.