Mediation saves upholstery pair legal bill

A potentially expensive legal dispute over an upholstery design has been avoided thanks to ACID’s mediation scheme.

Buoyant Upholstery and Bentincks used Anti-Copying in Design’s scheme to settle their differences over Bentincks’ Dorset design without recourse to lawyers.

A confidentiality agreement was agreed between the two manufacturers, which will see the Dorset discontinued from 1 August. The agreement was described as amicable, reached in good faith both ACID members praised the organisation for facilitating the discussions.

‘ACID set up a mediation protocol to allow companies who have a complaint to settle through mediation without lawyer involvement rather than go through a cost and time prohibitive legal route. The furniture industry is an amazing UK asset: it is always good to talk and promote respect, ethics and compliance,’ says Dids Macdonald, ACID chairman.

The upholstery continues to be sold by retailers at the time of writing and will be replaced by a new model.

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