Ashley Furniture Defeats Appeal in Suit Over Imitation Leather

Consumers wouldn’t be tricked into thinking Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.'s “DuraBlend” furniture is genuine leather, because disclosures on the tags “unambiguously” say the goods aren’t 100% leather, the Ninth Circuit said.

The claims of Nicholas Razo in his proposed class suit under California consumer protection laws flunk the reasonable consumer test, which presumes that buyers read “qualifying language” that appears immediately next to the representations it qualifies, the court said.

Summary judgment was therefore properly granted for the furniture giant, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in an unpublished order.

A reasonable consumer would have read ...