Ashley Furniture Class Action Says ‘Leather’ Falsely Advertised

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

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.