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.
