RW Supply and Design Misrepresented Geographic Source of Teckton Flooring, Class Action Lawsuit Says

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A new class action lawsuit accuses RW Supply and Design of misrepresenting the geographic origin of its pre-finished Teckton wood flooring.

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The 23-page wood flooring lawsuit says that although RW Supply and Design purports that its high-end Teckton engineered wood flooring, which comes pre-finished before installation, is an American product, the flooring is imported from “third-world countries” that lack “basic quality control standards.” The Teckton flooring at issue is sourced from countries such as Guatemala, Cambodia and China, production hubs “synonymous with low-quality wood-flooring [sic]” known to contain high levels of toxic chemicals, the proposed class action case alleges.

Neither RW Supply and Design nor Teckton discloses anywhere online, in product catalogs or in sales materials that their pre-finished wood floor products are made in or imported from outside the United States, the lawsuit charges.

According to the suit, Teckton engineered wood flooring is touted as different from traditional wood flooring in that it comes pre-finished, meaning that instead of on-site sanding and finishing, the products are sanded and finished in-factory with precision equipment, then cured, wrapped and boxed to be delivered to a job site. Per the case, RW and Teckton “hold themselves out as purveyors of extremely high-end wood flooring,” particularly for multi-million-dollar homes, and the companies purportedly supply wood flooring at “some of the most exclusive hotels, resorts, and retail stores” worldwide.

The complaint claims that RW Supply and Design’s representations— including that all its locations are in the United States, that it designs and manufactures its own pre-finished flooring, and that its manufacturing process begins “in the Eastern and Midwest forests of the U.S.”—together imply that its flooring products are made in the United States. The suit adds that Teckton “expressly represents” that its pre-finished wood flooring, including the “White Oak Prime Grade” flooring sold to the plaintiff, “comes[] from the Appalachian region of the United States.”

However, Teckton does not disclose that its flooring products are made in and/or imported from outside of the United States, the lawsuit alleges, emphasizing that the “made in the U.S.” representations are central to the defendants’ sales pitch and material to American consumers who “overwhelmingly value” America-made wood flooring over that produced abroad.

According to the suit, RW Supply and Design did, in fact, manufacture its own pre-finished engineered wood flooring in the U.S. until the early 2000s, yet began to import flooring from China at a lower cost thereafter “[i]n an effort to maximize its profits.”

“Part of the reason it is cheaper to produce pre-finished engineered flooring in China, is due to the absence of U.S. health and safety regulations meant to protect consumers and the environment,” the case contends.

The lawsuit highlights that a 2015 investigation found that Chinese-produced Lumber Liquidators flooring contained toxic levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogen. In the investigation, samples of Chinese-made flooring were found to have formaldehyde levels “close to 20 times above the level that’s allowed to be sold,” the case mentions.

Though China announced new formaldehyde regulations for wood-based panels and finishing products, including engineered flooring, in April 2017, RW Supply and Design in that same year began to shift from importing pre-finished flooring from China to instead importing it from a Cambodian company for even cheaper, “thereby avoiding Chinese regulation limiting toxicity of residential end-use wood-flooring products,” the complaint states.

The suit accuses RW Supply and Design and Teckton of declining to disclose the true source of their wood flooring products because “they know it would substantially decrease or eliminate customer’s [sic] interest in purchasing their products.”

“To the contrary, RW Supply and Design and Teckton’s representations about the geographic origin of their engineered flooring products mislead a reasonable consumer into falsely believing that their engineered flooring products were and are made in the United States,” the complaint reads.

According to the lawsuit, U.S. Customs records show that RW Supply and Design and Teckton imported the flooring that was ultimately sold to the plaintiff from a company called Rong Gean Wood Products Co. Ltd. in October 2022. The plaintiff further charges that instead of receiving white oak flooring as represented, she was sold red oak flooring by the defendants, which the lawsuit claims “steadfastly and pointedly refused to disclose where the flooring was manufactured, or its actual origin, and indeed refused to provide any information whatsoever about the flooring” when pressed by the consumer.

“As a result of Defendants’ misrepresentation of the Purported White Oak Floor, the Plaintiff had to pay for the Purported White Oak Floor to be removed, for a replacement White Oak floor, and for installation of an actual White Oak floor,” the suit reads. 

The wood flooring lawsuit looks to cover all persons who bought engineered wood floor products from RW Supply and Design, LLC and/or Teckton during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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