Brimer v. Eyewear Designs, Ltd.

Citizen enforcer Russell Brimer and settling party Eyewear Designs, Ltd. (“Eyewear”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement on August 13, 2015.  Brimer had alleged that Eyewear sold vinyl/PVC eyewear cases containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Eyewear agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC eyewear cases in California after August 5, 2015, unless the cases contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, or bear Proposition 65 warnings pursuant to section 2.3 of the agreement.  Should Eyewear provide Brimer with written certification by December 15, 2015 that all vinyl/PVC eyewear cases sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Brimer agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $34,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Brimer and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.