USA - A lawsuit to stop the importation and sale of substandard structural plywood from Brazil has ended in a permanent injunction barring a long-time certifier from operations in Brazil.

The suit alleged false advertising, loss of revenue and negligence related to the structural plywood failing to meet U.S standards and was therefore unsafe. In a Ft. Lauderdale federal court on May 24, Judge Roy Altman entered a permanent injunction requiring the revocation of all PS 1 certificates issued by PFS-TECO to over a dozen Brazilian mills producing structural plywood for the U.S. market. The decision forces wholesalers and retailers to immediately consider these products off-grade and to either obliterate the PS 1 stamp on the plywood before resale or destroy it.

“This case highlights how a few bad actors profited by essentially looking the other way while substandard, and potentially dangerous plywood was imported into the U.S. and used to build homes and businesses,” said Michael Haglund, counsel representing the U.S. Structural Plywood Integrity Coalition, of Haglund Kelley, LLP.

The strong language in Judge Altman's permanent injunction raises serious questions about what a plywood importer or distributor holding Brazilian plywood inventory bearing a PFS-TECO grade stamp should do with that inventory. "At this stage, a permanent injunction has been issued against a long-time certifier of Brazilian PS 1 plywood due to the clear inadequacy of its quality assurance system in that country,” continued Haglund. “As a result, everyone currently holding this inventory is now on notice that it should be considered off-grade, which means the PS 1 grade stamp on each panel should be obliterated before resale or the panel destroyed."

The U.S. Structural Plywood Integrity Coalition includes nine family-owned U.S. plywood manufacturers alleging that PFS-TECO falsely certified that plywood imported from Brazil met U.S. structural integrity requirements. The substandard Brazilian plywood has been used in construction throughout the U.S. and during reconstruction efforts following hurricanes along the East Coast, including Florida and Puerto Rico.