The video above is from January 7, 2020.
IKEA says customers looking to buy chests of drawers and other select clothing storage items will have to acknowledge the need for wall attachments before being allowed to purchase. It's aimed at reducing potential tip-over incidents which could result in injuries or death, particularly among young children.
"Customers at all U.S. stores must now acknowledge the need to attach the product to the wall and provide their name and email address before the sale can be finalized," IKEA said in a statement Thursday.
Customers will be asked to access an online registration form from their phone and register with their email before they buy. The completed form must be shown to an IKEA worker at the self-service aisle before being allowed to enter.
IKEA says the email address will only be used to send important safety updates and reminders about the need to secure certain pieces of furniture to a wall.
IKEA agreed to pay $46 million in January 2020 to the parents of a California 2-year-old who died of his injuries when a 70-pound, recalled dresser tipped over onto him. The family of Josef Dudek accused IKEA of knowing that its Malm dressers posed a tip-over hazard, because they had injured or killed a number of children before that. But, the family said that the company failed to warn consumers that the dressers shouldn’t be used without being anchored to a wall.
IKEA agreed to broaden its outreach about dresser recalls and meet with an advocacy group pushing for mandatory stability standards for dressers.
In its 2020 Tip Over Report, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received 571 reports of "product instability or tip-over-related" deaths between 2000 and 2019. The vast majority of those (469) involved children and, in most cases, involved furniture or televisions. Half of child tip-over deaths occurred in the bedroom while 22% happened in the living or family room.
CPSC also says an estimated 11,300 children were treated in emergency rooms every year between 2017 and 2019 due to furniture, TV, and appliance tip-overs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
