Ikea is set to pay US$46 million (AUD $67 million) to the family of a baby who was killed by a recalled product, the Malm dressing chest.
The two-year-old boy, Jozef Dudek from California in the US, was crushed after the dressing chest fell onto him, causing him to die of his injuries in 2017, according to the family’s lawyer.
His parents sued the Swedish furniture company in 2018 in a Philadelphia court following his death.
The lawsuit claimed that Ikea knew of the potential tip-over danger of the 32-kilo Malm dresser, which had previously killed or injured a number of children, but failed to warn consumers how to properly anchor the product.
‘Consumers should immediately stop using any recalled chest and dresser that is not properly anchored to the wall and place it into an area that children cannot access,’ a company-issued recall summary later said.
According to Ikea’s US website – 29 million of the dressers and other models of chests were recalled in 2016 after six fatalities in a 13-year period.
The Malm dressers are still being sold in Australia.
