NSF International (NSF) dropped its
lawsuit against the
Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) and Jack
Gillis two days before
NFS's executives were scheduled to give sworn testimony.
NSF had sued claiming
that Gillis's July 28, 2010 Open Letter to ABPA Members had
defamed NSF,
constituted illegal false advertising, and injured its
business reputation.
In addition,
the lawsuit contained the unusual allegation that the use of
NSF’s prior name, the
National Sanitation Foundation, injured its business
reputation. In such a lawsuit,
truth is a defense to these allegations. "My Open Letter
raised legitimate questions
that people should ask about any certification program,
including CAPA's. It was
not defamatory and we now can look forward to answers to those
questions," said
Jack Gillis, CAPA Executive Director."
“Litigation has never been a business strategy for CAPA, so I
am glad NSF has
completely dropped this lawsuit,” said Gillis. At CAPA our
efforts have been, and
continue to be, totally focused on insuring that the market
has a truly independent and
effective mechanism to identify parts that are comparable to
car company brand
parts.
NSF dismissed the lawsuit as part of a settlement reached
between the parties.
Under the settlement, NSF not only dismissed all of its claims
and agreed not to make
false and defamatory statements about CAPA, but CAPA is not
required to pay any
money to NSF, retract any aspect of Gillis’ Open Letter or any
statements in the
Letter, or apologize in any way. From the outset, CAPA and
Gillis have denied
making any false statements, defaming NSF, or committing any
false advertising
whatsoever.
CAPA expects to continue its efforts to identify important
differences in parts
meeting CAPA’s comprehensive standards for comparability to
car company brand
parts and those that don’t. The premise on which CAPA was
founded was to
provide the market with an independent mechanism to identify
truly high quality
alternatives to expensive car company brand parts. “As more
and more information
surfaces on problems with non-CAPA Certified parts, our
efforts have never been
more important,” said Gillis.
Regarding one of the most controversial products in
the market, alternative
bumpers, the CAPA 501 Bumper Parts Standard enables the market
to identify truly
comparable parts. Like all other CAPA Standards, the new CAPA
501 Bumper
Standard is based on the actual comparative testing of an
aftermarket part to its car
company brand counterpart. Because of the critically important
role the bumper may
play in the safety of the vehicle, CAPA turned to the
Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS), the nation’s preeminent crash testing and auto
safety authority, to
conduct a series of demonstration tests. These tests
independently confirmed that the
CAPA Bumper standard was capable of identifying parts that had
the same safety
performance as the car company brand parts. More information
on the CAPA 501
Standard and IIHS testing of the CAPA standard can be found at
www.CAPAcertified.org or by contacting the
CAPA office directly.
