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 claimed that Gillis’s July 28, 2010 open letter to ABPA members had defamed NSF, constituted illegal false advertising and injured its business reputation.
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’s 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.
NSF says it believes the record has been sufficiently cleared and that continued litigation would be a distraction from its mission to test and certify the quality and safety of aftermarket automotive parts and thus would not be in the best interest of the aftermarket parts industry or consumers.
“There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that NSF International is fully committed to supporting the automotive aftermarket parts industry,” said Bob Frayer of NSF International. “NSF will continue to test and certify the quality and safety of aftermarket automotive parts to ensure that high quality aftermarket safety parts are available to vehicle owners and body shops, and it’s toward that goal that our resources will be focused.”
Gillis said that, with the lawsuit behind the organization, CAPA will continue its efforts to identify differences in parts meeting CAPA’s standards for comparability to car company brand parts and those that don’t.
“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’m glad NSF has completely dropped this lawsuit. At CAPA, our efforts have been, and continue to be, totally focused on ensuring that the market has a truly independent and effective mechanism to identify parts that are comparable to car company brand parts."
