Faulty or dangerous goods

Over 500 people who suffered injuries from their Land of Leather sofas may not receive compensation, the High Court was told on Friday 27 March 2009.

It's the latest twist in a story Watchdog has been following since February 2008: the sofas that left thousands of people with horrific injuries.

Watchdog was the first to identify the cause of the problems - a sachet of a highly sensitising chemical called DMF that is placed in the sofas by the manufacturers to prevent mould growth.

Some 2,000 victims are now involved in a group action, most of whom bought their sofas from three main retailers; Argos, Land of Leather and Walmsley's. The three high-street stores could face more than £10m in compensation and legal costs, the claimants' lawyers say, making it "the largest group compensation claim ever seen in British Courts".

Three retailers admit liability
All three of the major retailers have admitted liability, and in a hearing held at the High Court on Friday 27 March, lawyers for Argos and Walsmleys's said they wanted compensation claims for proven injuries agreed as quickly as possible. This comes as a huge relief to customers who bought their sofas from either chain.

Pamela Dalton suffered months of agony when the sofa she bought from Argos left her with a painful rash on her legs and back. She's now likely to get several thousand pounds worth of compensation for the injuries she sustained. Pamela's delighted with the news: "I can close the book on it at last and that's a great relief", she told us.

No pay out
However, at the same court hearing Land of Leather's insurers, Zurich, dramatically announced that it wasn't going to pay out for the majority of the chain's customers, and possibly, none at all.

This leaves its customers uncertain if they'll ever get compensation for their injuries. Last year Mel Hackworth's daughter, Abbie, developed a painful rash on her legs caused by the sofa she'd bought at the Land of Leather. Mel now doesn't know if they'll get anything to compensate for Abbie's injures: "If it was their daughter who'd been in so much pain for months I don't think they'd be as quick to say "no, we don't want to pay".

The judge has given Zurich three weeks to confirm whether or not it will cover claims for those who bought affected sofas from Land of Leather. Richard Langton, the lawyer heading the action against the retailers, is disappointed with Zurich's behaviour. He told us that he hoped the company would, "reflect very hard in the next 21 days as to whether they seriously are going to refuse to pay compensation".

Total ban on DMF use
The EU has recently announced a total ban on DMF used in any products being imported into member states. The ban will become law on 1 May. The EU has also ordered a full recall of any products known to have contained DMF. What form the ban will take is up to authorities in each member state. BERR (the government department responsible).

When Watchdog spoke to Zurich it said: "First and foremost we'd like to express our sympathy for the pain and distress suffered by the individuals that purchased sofas affected by the toxic substance DMF.

"We announced at last week's case management conference that we would not be providing cover for some of the claims under Land of Leather's Product Liability policy, (Product Recall cover was not provided) following our investigations regarding the following:

• The circumstances in which the toxic substance (DMF) came to be used
  by the manufacturers, Linkwise and Eurosofa.


• The actions taken by the senior management of Land of Leather to react to the changing circumstances as the situation developed and the scale of the problem became apparent.

"Our investigations concluded that Land of Leather has breached the conditions of their insurance and therefore we've declined Land of Leather claims relating to Linkwise furniture, and any other furniture alleged to have caused injury as a result of exposure to DMF after 3 December 2008.

"We must stress that the decision to decline insurance on this occasion hasn't been taken lightly and it's only in very rare circumstances would we take such action. While the legal process prevents us from confirming these reasons for declining these claims at this stage, we can confirm that the issues involved were so fundamental to the insurance contract, that after consulting with our legal team, the decision was made not to grant cover.

"We'll provide further details regarding our decision to the Court and the claimant's solicitors, to ensure our position is communicated to those affected by this case.

"The claims that have been declined to date, represent about 20 per cent of the Linkwise claims."

Read the list of known affected sofas.

When it was launched in 2005, Microsoft boss Bill Gates called it the Ferrari of games consoles. Since then Microsoft has sold 28 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide, but the console hasn't always had a smooth ride.

In 2007, Watchdog reported on a problem which seemed to plague thousands of Xbox 360 owners - the infamous 'Red Ring of Death' - whereby a console would be rendered unable to function.

We thought that this was the only issue that Xbox 360 owners were encountering, but it appears we were wrong. We've had complaints from many of our viewers telling us there's another serious problem with the Xbox 360s, one that doesn't affect the console but could destroy the games you've paid a hefty wad of cash for.

What's worse, many of you have told us that Microsoft won't accept responsibility and in fact say it's your fault, not theirs.

Michael Mowatt, 13, is a devoted fan of the Xbox 360. His mum, Rachel, bought him the console to play when the weather was bad; but in order to buy his games, Michael has to save his pocket money.

Michael's neighbour keeps several racing pigeons in a coup in his garden and, in order to earn his pocket money for his games, Michael visits three times a week to clean out the pigeons - poo and all.

It took Michael two months to save enough money for two games and he was excited to get started on them straight away. But after just a couple of weeks of playing his new games discs, Michael heard a strange grinding noise coming from the Xbox 360.

Large scratch around the disc
The action on screen came to a halt and when the disc was examined there was a large circular scratch around the disc. Rachel thought that Michael had perhaps done something to it and told him off for misusing the console.

A few days later the very same thing happened to another of Michael's discs. This time Rachel knew something was wrong. Rachel called Microsoft who refused to cover the costs of replacing the games. The Xbox 360 was still in warranty so Microsoft did take the console away to be looked at, but it still refused to acknowledge responsibility and said it was Michael's fault the discs had ended up scratched. It said that he must have moved the console while playing. Michael resents this claim as he worked so hard to save for the games and is confident he hadn't touched the console at all while it was loading.

Microsoft blamed the family
Michael's Xbox 360 isn't the only case where the family have been blamed. The Monaghans are a family of seven - mum, dad and five daughters. Dad, Robert, wanted an activity the whole family could enjoy and so he decided to buy an Xbox 360 along with the game Rock Band.

The family enjoyed playing together, until only a few weeks later when the music came to a sudden stop. The console was displaying a disc read error and, when inspected, they found a large circular scratch along the surface of the disc. Robert wasn't pleased and thought the girls had done something wrong, so he put the Xbox away as a punishment.

When the Monaghan's eldest daughter, Alana, turned 11 they decided to buy a new game and put the family band back together. This time they bought Guitar Hero: World Tour but after only an hour and half of play they discovered the disc had been scratched and ruined again. This time Robert knew it wasn't his daughters and he called Microsoft.

Again Microsoft denied responsibility, telling the family it was their fault and that they'd not be replacing the games. The family were furious and adamant that the console had not been touched while the game was playing. The Xbox was taken away to be looked at and the Monaghan's were left without their console.

Complaints also extend outside the UK
This problem isn't restricted to the UK either. The EU's Consumer Commissioner has written to Microsoft twice, asking why she's receiving so many complaints about the Xbox 360. Further still, in the United States, lawyers are organising a class action against the company.

The law firm believes that Microsoft's stance, that Xbox 360 owners are cavalierly throwing their consoles around the room, doesn't make sense. It has spoken to a number of people who have insisted they didn't move the console at all.

We decided to set up an experiment with two Xboxes, a brand new console and one that we knew had already caused a scratch. We placed them both on level, stable surfaces. We arranged vases of water to indicate any movements, sealed off a secure space and inserted brand new games. Watchdog researchers then played solidly for six hours a day for three days, with neither Xbox being moved once.

After three days, the team hadn't had a single scratch. The conditions, however, weren't exactly what you'd find in an average teenager's bedroom, so we decided to take the test a little further and this time the result was quite different.

Boxes subjected to simulated vibrations
We sent the same Xbox 360s to a lab in Hampshire, where special testing equipment replicated the vibrations you'd find in a typical home. The first test simulated walking and caused the consoles no problem at all. Then the boxes were subjected to shock vibration testing, which simulated vibrations equivalent to that of someone putting a book down on the table near the Xbox. The newer console passed with flying colours; however, the older console caused a scratch similar to those experienced by the previous owner.

Our testers told us that the console had failed "very, very quickly" and that these are the kinds of vibrations you'd expect any household to have - particularly when playing games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero that encourage you to get physically involved.

Microsoft unwilling to admit there's a problem
The US lawyers have had similar test results to Watchdog's and they're likely to be a key part of their case against Microsoft. In the meantime, it seems Microsoft is unwilling to admit there's any such problem with the consoles.

When we contacted Microsoft it said the following: "Microsoft works hard to make certain that consumers in the United Kingdom clearly understand the quality and value which Microsoft provides including Xbox 360. We're committed to building consumer confidence by listening to our Xbox community and stand behind our products and services. The vast majority of Xbox 360 customers enjoy an excellent gaming and entertainment experience right out of the box.

"Microsoft reaffirms its longstanding position that it's not been able to ascertain any defect in the Xbox 360 console that causes concentric gouges (that is, 'scratching') on discs when a console is in a stationary position. Indeed, despite extensive testing and examination under static operating conditions, Microsoft has never been able to reproduce the concentric gouge that causes disc readability problems or find any such defect in consoles returned by consumers for examination. It's only with the movement of a console that such 'disc scratching' may occur. Consequently, Microsoft provides notices on the Xbox 360 console itself, in the user manual, and on its website - warning consumers not to move the console with a disc in it while in use.

"A very small fraction of our customers have contacted us about disc scratching. For those customers, Microsoft offers online support tools and call-in centre support and we encourage consumers to contact us online at:

xbox.com or by telephone on 0800 587 1102.

"Customers can send their consoles to Microsoft for further examination and repair, if required.

"Microsoft is committed to fully support its customers and honour its warranty obligations, but simply cannot replicate the disc scratching problem that's been alleged with the console in a stationary position."

It's now a year since Watchdog first told the story of the Chinese leather sofas which were causing agonising skin reactions in thousands of people. We were the first to identify the cause; sachets of a highly dangerous chemical, dimethyl fumarate or DMF, put in the sofas in China to stop mould growing.

In the UK the sofas were sold in three main stores: Argos, Land of Leather and Walmsleys.

What we didn't know at the time was that the sachets were causing injuries in several other countries. Affected sofas were sold across Europe, with problems reported in Finland, Poland, Sweden and especially France.

After 38,000 sofas were recalled there, French TV network France2 sent undercover reporters to the one of the Chinese manufacturers, Eurosofa, who'd been linked to the sofas. The reporters secretly filmed a meeting with representatives of Eurosofa. At first the company said that the sofas were nothing to do with them but then they admitted that they had in fact used sachets of dimethyl fumarate and had stopped when the scale of the problems the chemical had caused in the UK became clear.

Major breakthrough
Watchdog's been on top of this story from the very start and now there's been a major breakthrough. The European Commission is banning any products containing DMF from entering Europe. The new law, which comes into force in May, means all shops that have sold affected items, will have to issue a full recall. UK authorities have yet to decide exactly how that will work here.

EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva is behind the new law. She told us that "From 1 May 2009 DMF [will] not have any place in UK homes, in European homes. Well done, good job, Watchdog."

Admitted liability
But what about the thousands of people in the UK who've already suffered agonising skin reactions? In the coming weeks they'll find out if they've won compensation from the high street stores who sold them their sofas.

The lawyer behind the court action, Richard Langton, is confident they will because Argos, Land of Leather and Walmsleys have all admitted liability.

He says that "When you look at the two thousand people entitled to compensation, it looks like the total compensation package will be somewhere in the region of £5m to £10m."

Horrific reaction
One of the claimants in the High Court case is Sam Markey. In 2006 she bought an affected sofa from Land of Leather and soon developed a horrific reaction.

She's hoping that she will be compensated for the suffering, pain and depression she says was caused by a chemical in a sofa that should never have been there.

When we first reported on this story a year ago some of these stores refused to accept what we'd told them - that sofas they'd sold were dangerous. If they'd taken action sooner, maybe they wouldn't now face such massive payouts. There could still be more twists to come in what's become one of the most bizarre stories that Watchdog has ever covered.

Watchdog spoke to some of the companies involved.

Argos said:
"We have already gone on record as saying that we have accepted legal responsibility to our customers. Since this issue first surfaced, we have conducted detailed and extensive investigations and have worked, and will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities to make sure that the health and safety of our customers is protected. Once the European Union legislation has been published, we will cooperate with the appropriate authorities as required."

Deloitte, the Administrators to Land of Leather said:
"The Administrators have been made aware of the Dimethyl Fumarate (DMF) issue and are seeking professional advice, including legal input, on this complex matter.

"In respect of the DMF issue and in all other aspects of Land of Leather customer concerns the administrators are seeking to be as helpful as possible, consistent with their over-riding duties to creditors as a whole.

"It should be borne in mind however that unlimited funds to provide replacement products are not available. The options available to deal with problem products that can be identified as relating to the DMF issue are being explored and customer concerns will be addressed as sensitively as possible on the basis of the limited resources available in the administration.

"The branch where customers placed their order, or alternatively the call centre, should be the first point of contact for concerned customers - the call centre number is 0800 496 0868. There is a dedicated helpline available for customers that the call centre determine need further support."

Walmsleys said:
"Thankfully only a very small proportion of our customers have been affected but where we are satisfied that DMF has affected customers they have already been offered refunds or replacement products. In circumstances where our customers are entitled to further compensation some payments have already been made and we are working with the other retailers, their insurers and the claimants to create a system to ensure remaining payments are made as quickly as possible.

"We have already withdrawn product containing DMF from sale and we will continue to work closely with the trading standards authorities to ensure we continue to comply with UK and EU legislation."

Click here to read our last sofa report.

They've become one of our favourite places to shop. With over 17 million items for sale on their website, forget about the high street, you can get whatever you want on eBay.

However, not everything we've found on eBay over the years has been what you'd expect from the biggest name in online trading. This time we're not talking about fake handbags or dodgy designer goods. Now we've found dangerous weapons, designed to harm, openly for sale.

Counterfeit designer goods for sale
Two years ago, Watchdog investigated counterfeit designer goods for sale on eBay. The company later told us it had sharpened up its act and when two months ago we bought dangerous goods from one of its rivals, eBay told us that it prevents any prohibited items from appearing on its site. On the evidence we've gathered, it looks like it was wrong.

Further searches uncovered more dangerous knives when Watchdog browsed eBay's 13,000 categories. Under antiques, we found rugs, maps and clocks. In 'collectibles' we saw, teapots and autographs. But we also came across a less savoury item; a knife disguised as a pen. Further searches on the site uncovered more dangerous looking knives, including a dagger made of plastic that is as strong as steel and a flick knife, advertised under the category 'outdoor sports'.

All these knives were for sale on eBay's UK site, even though the sellers were in America. Many of the knives we found clearly looked illegal. So how easy would it be for us to get our hands on them?

One knife was confiscated
Our researchers ordered six through eBay, including flick knives, the plastic dagger and the knife hidden inside a pen. They cost between just £3 and £9. One - a flick knife - was intercepted by Customs. The note they sent detailing why the knife had been confiscated stated that they thought it was an offensive weapon. If we disagreed, we could argue the case in court.

The remaining five knives did get through and soon arrived in the post. What caught our eye was how the sellers had described the goods on the Customs declaration on the packaging. One was labelled as a 'gift', the other a 'tool' and one even a 'prop'. It seemed they were quite happy to tell the truth about what they were selling on eBay, but they didn't want to take any risks at all when it came to Customs.

When we received the knives we arranged a meeting with the Metropolitan Police to confirm their legal status. So that we didn't get charged with carrying an offensive weapon the police recommended that we put the knives in a securely locked case and carried with us a letter explaining that we were taking them to the local police station.

The police were horrified
When we arrived, our knives were examined by Sergeant Ian Lewis, who was horrified. He didn't like the flick knives or the special pen known as a 'disguised knife', but it was the plastic dagger- classed as a 'stealth knife' - that really shocked him as it would pass unnoticed by metal detectors. Sergeant Lewis made it clear that we'd be committing an offence if we left with these knives, so we were happy to surrender them to be destroyed. In his expert opinion they we all offensive weapons, illegal to sell or import into the UK.

Police response to knife crime
Leading the national police response to knife crime is deputy assistant commissioner Alf Hitchcock, of the Association of Chief Police Officers. He told us in this case, eBay is undermining police efforts. "I find it quite shocking that a retailer and a responsible retailer at that would be selling offensive weapons. Any company selling knives such as these should clean up their act, get a grip and need to stamp it out immediately. It's immoral to allow such weapons to get onto the streets of Britain and they do have a responsibility."

Whatever the law says, we had no trouble getting these knives on eBay's UK site. And it isn't as if we did it under the counter; the whole process seemed completely above board. So, why didn't eBay try to stop us getting them? It seems the security it boasted about last year has let the company down. Its software is supposed to filter out dangerous or prohibited items by recognising key words in its online listings. But somehow it missed words such as 'flick knife', 'plastic dagger', and 'pen with knife'.

eBay should stop this happening
Dr Tom Ilube, a specialist in internet security, thinks it's within eBay's power to prevent this sort of thing happening. "If they really wanted to do something about it then they could. I think they have to get more sophisticated with the way they search for key words. If you only have a limited set of key words, and you look for exact matches it's not going to be very effective if people are being smart about the words they use."

Tom was clear that the fact the sellers were based in the US and not the UK is not an excuse. "It's not a complete get out clause. It makes it a bit more difficult but eBay already deals with the situation of filtering things out in certain countries, and it could do that in this case as well. When you're as big as eBay, you have the resources that eBay has and you have the power in the market place that it has, so it is your problem whether you like it or not. You set up the market, you run the market, it is your problem."

In fact, eBay agrees. It told us this shouldn't have been able to happen and admitted some of the knives we bought are illegal in America too. We know from the eBay website that we are not the first people in the UK to have bought from these sellers. But we hope we're the last to have bought an offensive weapon. And eBay needs to make sure that we are.

Following Watchdog's report, Mark Lewis, Country Manager for eBay (UK) came on to the programme to announce that eBay intends to ban trade in all knives, with the exception of cutlery knives, on both its UK and Ireland websites.

In a statement eBay said the following:
"Trust is the engine of our business and it is our duty to provide a safe and secure marketplace for our members. The security measures we already have in place are designed to make sure that only legal knives have been offered for sale by UK and Irish sellers on our UK and Ireland sites and we are satisfied with how these measures have been working in both the UK and Ireland.

"We have a good track record of leading the online industry in going above and beyond what the law requires in a number of areas such as fighting counterfeits or banning the sale of ivory worldwide. Similarly, our policies on weapons and knives go above and beyond the legal requirements set out by the Home Office. However, the laws surrounding the sales of knives are extremely complex and so we have decided that the best way to protect our members and achieve the safety guarantees they have come to expect from us is to remove and ban all knives, with the exception of cutlery knives, from our UK and Ireland sites.

"eBay's marketplace structure means that it will take time to work with our sellers to remove the knives currently for sale and prevent new listings from being posted. However, we are committed to achieving this as quickly as possible."

Illegal knives
The exact legal definitions detailing which types of knives are classed as offensive weapons are complex and hence open to interpretation. However, the police experts that we consulted considered that all five of the knives we obtained would qualify as offensive weapons, falling under the definition of stealth knives, disguised knives, flick knives or gravity knives. Offensive weapons are illegal to sell or import in the UK.

In addition, the vast majority of knives are illegal to carry on the street, except under exceptional circumstances, regardless of whether they fall under the strict definition of an offensive weapon. However, that does not mean that it is illegal for someone over the age of 18 to buy, sell or possess such a knife, as many knives have a perfectly legitimate purpose, for example a dive knife for diving or a knife used in some outdoor activities.

eBay told Watchdog that all knives would be removed from sale on the UK and Ireland sites in a matter of weeks.

Following further comments on this site from Vauxhall owners who've experienced the problems reported on Watchdog, Vauxhall has reiterated how seriously the company is taking this issue - and its commitment to tackling it. It has also made clear it only affects the models named on the programme.

Our report on Monday 12 January revealed there can be two problems with the fuel system on some Vauxhall cars with 2.2 litre engines - Vectras and Signums produced since 2003, and Zafiras made since 2005 (click here for full report).

Your comments
The item provoked a huge response, with some of you saying you'd experienced the same problems highlighted in our report - and more than once. But Vauxhall is confident that's now far less likely to happen, because it has modified the fuel pump that's caused most of the incidents.

And while the fault with the regulator highlighted on the programme "is still an issue", the company has told us its engineers "are working on it with all haste".

We'd also been contacted by owners of other models - not all Vauxhalls - asking if their cars had the same fault. We obviously won't publish allegations about any further models without checking them with the manufacturers concerned, and for their part, Vauxhall are quite definite that only the models we named can be affected.

It says: "We can state clearly that these two components (and the faults arising) are only fitted to and affect the 2.2 petrol engine in the vehicle types and range that we have already stated."

Repair costs
And in response to further concerns raised about repair costs resulting from these faults, the company told us: "We find that most of the customers who have experienced these faults have been very understanding and have been dealt with positively by our retailers. We have reviewed (against our records) all the 75 people who contacted us after the programme unhappy with the decisions taken on contribution, and in all cases they have been dealt with using the guidelines that we sent Watchdog with the relevant contribution to their specific case/vehicle age. Clearly if, for example, a car is six years old and way out of warranty, it does not fit within the guidelines and there will be no contribution".

Contacting Vauxhall
If you're concerned about either fault you can email Vauxhall or telephone: 0845 0902044 during office hours.