For 30 years now, the Swedish self-assembly shelf Billy has been in our homes. Many can’t imagine life without Billy and many don’t know life without Billy. And Ikea, together with Billy and his sisters and brothers, has also left its mark in the world of technical communication. Let’s stay with the Billy shelving system for now. On the one hand, it comes with assembly instructions that have remained almost unchanged for 30 years, and on the other hand, it has been completely implemented as a language- and culture-neutral visual instruction. This is practically an affront to all (self-) appointed experts in the application of laws and standards of the industry. I want to leave this here just as it is and I am curious about reactions.

But Ikea did even more for us. Ikea gave the brittle designation “§ 434 para. 2 sentence 2 BGB” the name “Ikea clause”. According to this paragraph, “A material defect in an item intended for assembly is also given if the assembly instructions are defective, unless the item has been assembled correctly. In practice, this regulation protects the consumer. According to it a product is faulty if the assembly instructions are faulty and the product cannot be assembled in this way.

All in all we can only say: Thank you for all the wonderful hours spent setting up shelves and reading laws.