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A California class action lawsuit accuses Ashley Furniture Industries Inc. and Ashley Homestores Ltd. of false advertising and fraud. The complaint alleges that Ashley Furniture sells “DuraBlend” furniture without disclosing that it is not made of actual leather.
In addition, the class action claims that the DuraBlend faux leather coating does not stand up to normal wear and tear, and instead easily peels off, revealing a rough, off-white layer underneath.
The class action states that in 2008, Ashley Furniture started using what it called a “blended leather upholstery,” and branded as its DuraBlend upholstery, on some of its furniture. The complaint alleges that “blended” leather is another term for “bonded” leather, which is a “man-made material that incorporates leather scraps and fiber and mimics the appearance of leather.”
Low-quality bonded leather “may suffer flaking of the surface material in as little as a few years,” and the Federal Trade Commissioner recommends that sellers of bonded leather items disclose the percentage of leather the upholstery contains, according to materials cited by the complaint.
The Ashley Furniture DuraBlend class action lawsuit accuses Ashley Furniture of intentionally misleading consumers by calling its DuraBlend upholstery “blended leather” and by making it have as close an appearance to true leather as possible. The complaint states that Ashley Furniture violated California consumer protection and warranty laws by not disclosing the true nature of its upholstery to customers, and by not disclosing the actual percentage of leather in its DuraBlend upholstery, “as required by law.”
Plaintiff Nicholas Razo states that in October of 2013 he spent $2,000 on a sofa and loveseat with DuraBlend upholstery, believing it to be leather furniture. Razo claims that in January of 2014 he discovered that the DuraBlend upholstery “was peeling, causing pieces and particles of the top “leather”-like layer to come off and exposing the underlying material, which was coarse in texture and off-white in color.” Razo states that he contacted both the store and the manufacturer, Ashley Furniture, and they have not corrected the problem.
Similarly, plaintiff Kathleen Koehn states that in April of 2013 she purchased a brown sectional sofa made with DuraBlend upholstery for $650. Koehn claims that the store represented that the sofa was made from “bonded leather,” and she thought it was leather furniture. However, Koehn asserts that in 2014 she discovered the same peeling issue, and within two years the fake leather surface had almost peeled off entirely. Koehn claims that she contacted the store for a refund, and the “salesman declined to provide a refund and told her there was nothing he could do, as this type of furniture was not ‘designed to last’ as much as two years.”
The Ashely Furniture DuraBlend lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of all persons who purchased furniture with DuraBlend upholstery from Ashley Furniture in California on or after Dec. 22, 2011. The class action requests restitution and punitive damages under California consumer protection laws, as well as a court order to stop Ashley Furniture from making false advertisements of its DuraBlend upholstery.
Razo and Koehn are represented by Mike Arias and Mikael H. Stahle of Arias Sanguinetti Stahle & Torrijos LLP.
The Ashley Furniture DuraBlend Class Action Lawsuit is Nicholas Razo, et al., v. Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-2911, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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305 thoughts onAshley Furniture Class Action Says ‘Leather’ Falsely Advertised
I too bought the Durablend sofa and love seat in 2013, I am a single person with no kids and rarely sat on the furniture. I bought the warranty/insurance through montage and was told it would cover rips, tears, punctures or any kinda of defect or damage with the furniture. Fast forward to 2017, I contacted them as it started to peel, I was going to use my montage to have the furniture fixed and the representative I spoke with told me no the furniture you have has a recall defect and all you have to do is send in photos showing the tags under the cushion and the damage. Did all that never heard a thing from them. I work 2 jobs and it wasn’t in the front of my mind, when I thought to check on it it was past 5 years and they said they could not honor it. So I have this raggedy looking furniture in my living room that I had to get covers for so it wouldn’t look like I picked this mess up from the side of the road. I was also told that I would receive a refund of the montage insurance if it were not used; have yet to receive it. I will never purchase another piece of furniture from them for as long as I live and I will advise everyone I know that they do not stand behind their product.
If you want a leather sofa you need to be sure it is GENUINE LEATHER! Although, the price should be your first clue that the furniture is NOT genuine leather.
The FTC needs to STOP allowing Bonded Leather to be sold as “real leather”. Bonded Leather is only 10% leather.. the rest is made up of polyurethane and other materials.
People are confused about the term “real leather” They are confusing it with Genuine Leather.
Everyone needs to file a complaint with the FTC. They are contributing to the problem!
I purchased my “dura blend” furniture in 2013 along with upgrading it to a power recliner and their warranty. Is there anyway I could get money back through this lawsuit?
We also purchased “Dura-Blend” couch and loveseat from Ashley furniture in February 2012. We also paid $129.99 for a 5 year protection warranty with Guardsman. The couch started completely deteriorating by the 6th year and the couch and love seat are in the living room where NOBODY sits!
We as most homes today spend all of our time in the family room! I did make a trip to Ashley/Colton.Ca. in October 2018 showing pictures of the couch and love seat coming apart. Vince the “store manager” gave me a card and said he would give me $100.00 off of anything in the store. I was not pleased…to say the least!! If there is a class action lawsuit against Ashley Furniture we would love to be added to this list. We have pictures available to send.
We need help to file a class action lawsuit for every state that sold these supposed “leather sofas that were advertised as pure leather except the sides and back were bonded leather. The “real leather is flaking and peeling bad and is white showing through badly. We need to get a reimbursement from Ashley Furniture that sold these as well as any other company that sold these under false tenses. This is highway robbery of people’s money who thought they were buying leather sofas with bonded back and sides. This was not the case and the company knows it but will not stand by their word or their merchandise. We deserve a refund! Everyone deserves a refund with a class action suit in any state that sold these. Enough is enough. They should not get off the hook for what they have done!
We live in Hagerstown MD and we bought two of these sofas. We were told the back and sides were made of bonded leather but that the fronts were made of pure quality leather. Ours started peeling just like the others stated even thought they were barely used and only for company, which was very rare. We contacted the store which claimed we did not know what we were talking about. We have photos and it is only getting worse with time even thought they are not being used. The “leather finish” is flaking off and the underneath is white and this looks horrible. We did not get what was promised. These were on sale for $599 as long as you purchased $5000.00 worth of furniture which we did as we also purchased other furniture including a matching box spring and furniture. The first sofa they sent had a tear in the side of it in the bonded leather so they took it back and brought another one. This still did not resolve the issue of not even having the sofas with the “pure quality leather” that began to flake not too long after we purchased it. We went to the store and complained. They were in the process of moving to another location from Longmeadow Shopping Center to Wesel Boulevard in our town which both are in Hagerstown MD. When they moved we again spoke with the management as they said the store at Long Meadow Shopping Center had nothing to do with Ashley Furniture on Wesel Boulevard and denied having any involvement in the furniture sold at Long Meadow Shopping Center even though they only just moved. It was just their way of saying “oh, well, it is not our problem!” We are still waiting on a settlement as there are way too many people that purchased these sofas that are flaking due to the fact they are not leather at all! We want something done in the form of a class action settlement that reimburses us for such awful advertising as well as the furniture “real leather” is peeling off and showing the white material underneath! This is a bad case of false advertising to say the least. We, the consumers, are due our compensation for these awful lies to the customers and the fact this is not real quality leather as they advertised! We need something done as they should not get away with such false advertising and having us stuck with this awful looking furniture that iis not the real deal!
We also bought one of their sofa recliners in Bonded ?leather. Have you ever reached a settlement with them ?. We are buying another sofa recliner now, but not from Ashley.
We have the same thing happening to ours. Bought “leather” reclining couch in 2012
Having the same problem spent over 3,000 on couch loveseat and chair and you can’t even sit on them because they are peeling so bad . Has anyone gotten anywhere with this .
We have not gotten anywhere with this even though the company stated these were real leather but they are not and our furniture is peeling badly and apparently is everyone else’s who paid for and purchased this under false advertising.
I know about a three piece and I never heard anything from they never got the check from another please keep me posted
We have gotten no reimbursement and no acknowledgement that our furniture is not “real leather as promised! They stated the sides and back were durabond but that the front was actual leather! This is such misleading advertising and the company is not standing by their promise of real leather except the back and sides are bonded leather. This is highway robbery and they are not doing anything about this!
I don’t know if this is still an ongoing thing or not but I have experienced this exact thing with my Ashley couch. Peeling and cracking everywhere, not the quality I was led to believe it was.
The same thing is happening to my fake leather couch.