(ECNS) -- In the latest twist, Swedish furniture maker IKEA seems to have backed away from a previous decision to recall a line of life-threatening chests of drawers in China, promising to announce its new decision on Monday.
IKEA had achieved some progress during communication with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the China Consumer's Association by July 8, an IKEA manager told National Business Daily.
A solution will be disclosed through official channels around Monday, while the notice IKEA sent to its customers by SMS message is no longer the official end decision regarding the dressers in question, it was added.
In the SMS message, IKEA said it would help attach the chests to walls free of charge, or customers could return the product if they wanted. A staff member at IKEA also said that if the wall was not load bearing, then the chest of drawers couldn't be attached and should be returned, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
The message was just a reminder of the polices that customers can enjoy rather than a recall decision, the company added.
IKEA recalled the products after six children in the United States and Canada lost their lives in incidents associated with the dresser, marketed mainly under the Malm brand and also sold in China. The company has come under fire for excluding China from its massive recall plan.
It previously refused to recall the products in China, saying that the furniture met Chinese standards and there had been no reported accidents with it. Chinese media outlets, including state news agency Xinhua, joined the online outcry over different treatment of the Chinese market.
IKEA's annual sales figures in China reached 10.5 billion yuan ($1.58 billion) in 2015, about one third of global figures, while annual growth in China from 2010 to 2015 was 5.1 times higher than globally.
