Criticism of IKEA

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Global furniture and homeware retailer IKEA has been criticized for various issues, including their raw material sourcing, the size of their stores, the impact of their stores on local communities, legal violations, and unfair or discriminatory business practices, among others.

Contents

Wood sourcing practices

Illegal timber in Ukraine

In 2020, the NGO Earthsight found IKEA and others to be selling furniture made from wood illegally felled during "silent periods" in the forests of the Ukrainian Carpathians. The wood in question was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) despite its sourcing. [1]

Illegal timber in Russia

In 2021, the NGO Earthsight alleged the use of illegally logged wood from protected forests in Russia by IKEA and others, with the source forests being owned by millionaire politician Evgeny Bakurov. Bakurov's pine was certified by the FSC. IKEA denied wrongdoing and announced a temporary ban on sanitary felled wood from Russia, while also insisting that Bakurov's wood was "legally harvested". [2]

Illegal timber in Romania

In 2017, a team of French journalists learned IKEA was cutting down 200-year-old trees and converting them into particle board in their sub-supplier Kronospan's factory in Sebeș, Romania. Kronospan delivers particle board to Ecolor, which produces, among other things, the Brimnes shelf for IKEA. Mikhail Tarasov, IKEA's Global Forestry Manager, answered in an interview that the only thing they ask their suppliers for is using particle board in their furniture. [3] Questions regarding where IKEA sources their furniture and wood are considered classified. [3]

In 2022, The New Republic published a report about the misuse of logging permits in Romanian forests owned by INGKA Investments, the investment arm of IKEA owner INGKA Holding. INGKA had cleared far bigger areas of protected old-growth forest in Romania than permitted, contributing to local corruption and violence against environmental activists. Since 2015, INGKA Investments has become the largest private landowner in Romania, by buying up forest. It is estimated that around 10% of the wood used for IKEA furniture comes from Romania. [4]

Scandinavica

In 2014, documents were found at the Securitate archives in Bucharest, Romania, which indicated that IKEA's open purchase of Romanian lumber throughout the 1980s was part of a complex scheme (codenamed "Scandinavica") to fund the Securitate and allow the accumulation of foreign currency in the Socialist Republic of Romania: the Romanian lumber company Tehnoforestexport would regularly overcharge IKEA, transfer the overpayments into private Securitate bank accounts, wait for interest to accrue, and then reimburse IKEA the principal. IKEA denied complicity in Scandinavica but began an internal investigation. [5]

Timber from Belarus

7% of the wood that becomes IKEA furniture comes from Belarus, where the state owns all of the country's forests. IKEA has been accused of financing President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko's repression against political opponents, with Anna Sundström, Secretary-General of the Olof Palme International Center, arguing that the money contributes to maintaining his oppressive regime. [6]

Child deaths

In July 2015, IKEA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, through the company's Safer Homes Together advertising campaign, issued a warning in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to customers to secure the Malm chests of drawers and wardrobes firmly to the wall using free kits distributed by the company, after the deaths of two young children in the U.S. in February and June 2014 when the furniture tipped over and fell on them. Since 1989, there were three other deaths from other similar appliance models tipping over, and 14 incidents of Malm chests tipping over, resulting in four injuries. The company sent out free kits on request for customers to anchor the furniture to the wall. [7] In June 2016, after a third toddler died in the U.S., IKEA recalled all Malm dressers as well as several similar models which posed a tipping danger if not secured to the wall with the supplied kit. [8] [9] On 12 July 2016, bowing to two weeks of rising pressure in China, IKEA announced that it was extending this recall to that country, which, along with Europe, was initially excluded from the recall. [10] Over 29 million dressers were recalled. [11] [12] IKEA settled wrongful death lawsuits for over $50 million in compensation to the families of the three children who were killed. [13] [14]

IKEA France spying

In 2012, IKEA in France was accused by the independent newspaper Le Canard enchaîné and the investigative website Mediapart of spying on its employees and clients by illegally accessing National Police records. The head of risk management at IKEA feared his employees were anti-globalists or potential ecoterrorists. [15] [16]

The French branch of IKEA went on trial on 22 March 2021, for running an elaborate system to spy on staff members and job applicants by illegally using private detectives and police officers. [17]

On 15 June 2021, IKEA France was found guilty of spying and ordered to pay €1.1m in fines and damages for these illegal practices. Additionally, Jean-Louis Baillot, the former head of IKEA France was ordered to pay €50,000 and received a two-year suspended prison sentence. Jean-François Paris, IKEA's former head of risk management and alleged mastermind of the scheme, received a suspended 18 month prison sentence and was fined €10,000. [18]

Store size, construction, and openings

IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in its merchandise have sometimes been at odds with the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community. In particular, the size of proposed IKEA stores and a perceived negative effect on other local businesses has often seen significant opposition from members of such communities. Some examples include:

Involvement of IKEA founder with Nazi sympathizer

In 1994, Stockholm daily newspaper Expressen reported on IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad's past involvement with Swedish pro-Nazi groups as one of the member's archives revealed his name. The archives showed Kamprad had attended a number of meetings and had befriended a leading extremist, Per Engdahl, starting in 1945 and extending well into the 1950s. The newspaper printed more details, including the text of a 1950 note from Kamprad to Engdahl in which Kamprad said he was proud to be involved with the groups. Kamprad denied he was ever a formal member of the Nazi groups and said he was drawn to Engdahl's vision of a non-communist, socialist Europe. He mentioned that his activities during that time "a part of my life which I bitterly regret." [27]

Price discrimination

In 2007, Canadian newscast CityNews reported that IKEA had been charging up to twice as much in their Canadian stores as for the same items sold in their American stores, despite the Canadian dollar having temporarily reached parity with the U.S. dollar. [28]

Within the days after the launch of the South Korean edition of the official IKEA website, complaints arose from a group of consumers on IKEA's pricing policy in the country: the prices of certain products were higher than other countries. [29] On 24 November 2014, Jang Duck-jin, head of the Fair Trade Commission's consumer policy bureau, told the media that the commission was planning to commission a consumer group to compare IKEA's product prices by country, [30] and on 19 March 2015, the Consumers Union of Korea published a report comparing the prices of 49 IKEA products in South Korea and other countries, which concluded that exchange rate adjusted prices in Korea were second highest out of 28 developed economies compared, and fourth highest once adjusted for purchasing power. [31]

Biased branding and advertising accusations

Horse meat meatballs

In February 2013, IKEA announced it had pulled 17,000 portions of Swedish meatballs containing beef and pork from stores in Europe after testing in the Czech Republic found traces of horse meat in the product. The company removed the Swedish meatballs from store shelves on 25 February 2013, but only made the announcement public after Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet uncovered what happened. [37] In a March 2013 media report, an IKEA representative stated that the corporation had made Familjen Dafgård, its main meatball supplier, cease business with 8 of its 15 suppliers, and would reduce the number of purchasing countries. The offending meat was traced to a Polish abattoir. [38]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IKEA</span> Swedish multinational retail conglomerate

Inter IKEA Systems B.V., trading as IKEA, is a Swedish multinational conglomerate that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and currently legally headquartered in the Netherlands, IKEA has been the world's largest furniture retailer since 2008. The brand name is an acronym of founder Ingvar Kamprad's initials; Elmtaryd, the family farm where Kamprad was born; and the nearby village of Agunnaryd, Kamprad's hometown in Småland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingvar Kamprad</span> Swedish founder of IKEA (1926–2018)

Feodor Ingvar Kamprad was a Swedish billionaire business magnate best known for founding IKEA, a multinational retail company specialising in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ikano Bank</span> Swedish bank

Ikano Bank is a consumer finance bank established in 1995 by Ingvar Kamprad. It offers loans, savings accounts and partner business supplying sales finance to large retailers, including IKEA, Volkswagen, Audi, Lindex, Hemtex, Skoda, Shell and Preem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ready-to-assemble furniture</span> Furniture that requires assembly upon opening

Ready-to-assemble furniture (RTA), also known as knock-down furniture (KD), flat-pack furniture, or kit furniture, is a form of furniture that requires customer assembly. The separate components are packed for sale in cartons which also contain assembly instructions and sometimes hardware. The furniture is generally simple to assemble with basic tools such as hex keys, which are also sometimes included. Ready-to-assemble furniture is popular with consumers who wish to save money by assembling the product themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MFI Group</span> Defunct British furniture retailer

MFI Group Limited was a British furniture retailer, operating under the MFI brand. The company was one of the largest suppliers of kitchens and bedroom furniture in the United Kingdom, and operated mainly in retail parks in out of town locations. Anecdotally, it was said at one stage that one in three Sunday lunches in the United Kingdom were cooked in a kitchen from MFI, and 60% of British children were conceived in a bedroom from MFI.

Ikano Group is a privately held international group of companies with the parent company Ikano S.A. based in Luxembourg. It was originally a part of IKEA, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, then became independent in 1988, and has since been owned by the Kamprad family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Churchill Square, Brighton</span> Shopping mall in Brighton, England

Churchill Square is the principal shopping centre in the centre of Brighton and Hove, a city on the south coast of England. It is at the eastern end of Western Road, near the Clock Tower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stichting INGKA Foundation</span> Dutch nonprofit organization

The Stichting INGKA Foundation is a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish billionaire and founder of IKEA, and his corporate attorney Linnea Walsh. INGKA is one of the largest charitable foundations in the world and used to be one of the largest nonprofit organisations in the world. The name "INGKA" comes from a contraction of Ingvar's name, while stichting is the Dutch language word for foundation. The stated purpose of the foundation is "To promote and support innovation in the field of architectural and interior design"; however, the organization has recently expanded its philanthropic agenda towards well-being of children in the developing world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IKEA Catalogue</span> Catalogue formerly published by IKEA

The IKEA Catalogue was a catalogue published annually by the Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA. First published in Swedish in 1951, the catalogue was considered to be the main marketing tool of the company and, as of 2004, consumed 70% of its annual marketing budget. Approximately 208 million copies of the catalogue were printed in fiscal year 2013, more than double the number of Bibles expected to be printed in the same period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">INGKA Holding</span> Holding company

INGKA Holding B.V. is a holding company based in Leiden, Netherlands. It is the largest IKEA franchisee holding company that controls 367 stores of the 422 of IKEA in 2018. The company is fully owned by the Stichting INGKA Foundation. INGKA is named after Ingvar Kamprad, its Swedish founder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aura (Toronto)</span> Mixed-use skyscraper completed in 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Aura is a mixed-use skyscraper completed in 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the final phase of a series of condominium buildings near College Park in Toronto's Downtown Yonge district. It is part of the Residences of College Park project. Construction lasted from 2010 to 2014. With 79 floors, as of 2018 it is the tallest residential building in Canada and the 38th tallest residential building in the world.

Household goods are goods and products used within households. They are the tangible and movable personal property placed in the rooms of a house, such as a bed or refrigerator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter IKEA Foundation</span>

Inter IKEA Foundation is a foundation registered in Liechtenstein as a Unternehmensstiftung. Its office is located in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. It owns Inter IKEA Holding B.V., registered in the Netherlands, which through its subsidiary Inter IKEA Systems controls the intellectual property of the IKEA brand. Through its subsidiaries, the foundation collects franchise fees of 3% on sales of all IKEA products and also conducts investment activities. In 2011, it was reported that the foundation controlled assets valued at US$15 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inter IKEA Holding</span> Holding company

Inter IKEA Holding B.V. is a holding company registered in the Netherlands, ultimately owned by Interogo Foundation. It owns the company Inter IKEA Systems and thereby controls the intellectual property of IKEA. It is also in charge of design, manufacturing and supply of IKEA products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Åsbrink</span> Swedish author and journalist (born 1965)

Elisabeth Katherine Åsbrink is a Swedish author and journalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Groupe Habitat</span> International chain of stores

Groupe Habitat is an international chain of stores of British origin created by Sir Terence Conran in 1973, which specialises in the sale of furniture and contemporary decorative accessories. In September 2011 it was purchased by the French group Cafom SA distribution, who sold it to the industrialist Thierry Le Guénic in October 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poäng</span> Wooden armchair by IKEA

The Poäng is a wooden cantilever armchair that has been sold by the Swedish furniture retailer IKEA since 1978. As of 2016, about one-and-a-half million Poängs are sold annually, and a total of 30 million have been produced.

Flatpack Empire is a British documentary television series that was first broadcast on BBC Two between 6 and 20 February 2018. The three-part series goes behind the scenes of the world's largest and best-known furniture retailer, IKEA with narrator Olivia Colman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesper Brodin</span> Jesper Brodin, the CEO of Ingka Group.

Jesper Brodin is a Swedish business leader and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ingka Group. During his career at IKEA, Brodin has held a number of different roles including assistant to Ingvar Kamprad, Business Area Manager Kitchen and Dining, as well as managing director for Range & Supply, Inter IKEA Group.

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