Legal management is a course for students who want to pursue management careers among best
industries with a profound background pertaining to legal aspects or pursuing the field of law with a
background in business and management. But this does not only limit students being employees of a
firm, yet they can also become future businessman finishing this course. In other words, legal
management is a business course providing students a comprehensive background in management and
basic Philippine law. This is why consumer protection is recognized and implemented in the curriculum
of Legal Management because this particular subject can not only help future businessmen and
managers achieve sustainability and prevent legal suits, but also help future lawyers expound their
knowledge in legal aspects of business trades particularly consumer rights. So, taking up legal
management is very practical for modern day students who want to become future managers,
businessman, and lawyers because this course covers up all important studies needed among the field
of career given. Even so consumer protection is not included in Bar Exams, consumer protection is still
included in the curriculum because of the importance of business trades in our daily life. I say this
because of the fact that we ourselves is also a consumer, if we are harmed or injured of the products
that we use and buy, we can use consumer protection laws to demand fair and equal play against the
producers. Hence, studying consumer protection is a necessity.
Deadly Dressers is a film mainly documenting IKEA and furniture suppliers on their unethical practices in
selling malm drawers. But this documentary also includes the illegal and unethical practices of furniture
firms in getting raw materials such as illegal logging. To tackle these abusive practices that this firms are
doing, international consumer protection laws are in placed to provide a fair and equitable business
trade between suppliers and consumers. Selling low quality dressers that does not pass the stability test
should not be sold in the first place because as depicted in the film, not only did 2 children died, but a
number of them did while being close to the front of the dresser. Having warning instructions is not
enough for most of furniture consumers because it is common that furniture supply should be of quality.
So executive departments such as DTI, is established in the Philippines to execute laws needed to not
only help and provide consumers safe and healthy welfare with the Consumers Right Act, but also
businessmen with the Price Act to prevent illegal price cutting and manipulate industries and markets
that was also shown in the film. That is also why trade laws are implemented to provide and help quality
furniture supplies achieve sustainability and compete with Chinese products.
In the first part of the film, they showed how children died with dressers by crushing them due to the
instability of the furniture. The quality of furniture products also decreased as IKEA introduced an
innovative product to worldwide consumers. Then competitors such as Walmart, Target, etc. followed
the Swedish retailer in selling furniture in the industry. Surprisingly, the director or owner of IKEA had a
hidden agenda and secrets were revealed. Ingvar Kamprad, the director of IKEA was an active member
of Swedish Nazi Party and was brought up to be a pro German. Also, he told the public that the
ownership of IKEA was donated to a charitable foundation but was proven in contrary. The documentary
also featured illegal logging activities captured by Gabi Paun in Romania and how Holzindustrie
Schweighofer, one of the largest lumber producer in the country, processes 1.5 million cubic meters of
lumber every year. What's more, alarming rates of deforestation and loss of biodiversity was evidently
shown as a result of lumber companies sourcing from the virgin forests of Romania and around the
world. Going back to the victims of the deadly dressers, three families won the lawsuit and were granted
$50 million dollars from the defendant to be split equitably. And as the film ends, Janet formed an
organization for the victims, and continue on advocating against these dressers and for the safety and
welfare of children.
After watching the film, you will learn that not all good looking and expensive household products will
satisfy you. Even worse, they can kill you. As a consumer, I need to be wise in choosing household
products that I buy. There is no perfect quality and satisfaction in furniture retailers or department
stores. Because retailers can use private labelling with low quality raw materials or produce furniture
without ISO or conforming with DTI standards. As an example, I went at Wilcon Depot and I bought a
good looking led lamp light at a sale price, but it did not light up after a few months. I realized that you
don't only look for the extrinsic quality of household products but consider the intrinsic quality such as
the brand and quality of the chosen product through quality testing.