Brimer Negotiates Settlement with Seasonal Specialties Re: Holiday Decor

Client Russell Brimer has negotiated a settlement with Seasonal Specialties LLC in regards to LED lights and other string lights with PVC cables that allegedly contained di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm.  Brimer alleged that Seasonal Specialties offered these products for sale without the requisite health hazard warning as required by California’s Proposition 65 law.

As part of the settlement agreement, Seasonal Specialties will pay $67,000 in civil penalties, 75 percent of which will go to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to benefit public health and the environment.  Seasonal Specialties also agreed to sell only reformulated LED lights and other string lights with PVC cables that are virtually free of DEHP, butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) and di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), and to reformulate other products as well, including vinyl/PVC greenery and holiday ornaments. 

Brimer agreed to waive 50 percent of the civil penalty should Seasonal Specialties also make its products virtually free of the additional phthalate chemicals diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) and diisononyl phthalate (DINP).

For more details, please see the case summary on our website: Brimer v. Seasonal Specialties LLC.

The Chanler Group represents citizen enforcers who, acting in the public interest, commence actions against businesses offering products for sale in California that contain chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive harm without first providing the health hazard warning required by Proposition 65. Citizen enforcers bringing Proposition 65 actions in the public interest may obtain a Court Judgment imposing civil penalties, an injunction requiring reformulation of products, and/or provision of health hazard warnings. The Chanler Group has represented citizen enforcers of Proposition 65 for more than twenty years.