Brimer v. Fellowes, Inc.

On August 27, 2011, citizen enforcer Russell Brimer and settling defendant Fellowes, Inc. ("Fellowes") entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved Brimer's allegations that Fellowes sold travel and carry cases of electronic devices containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Fellowes agreed not to sell any cases for electronic devices in California, unless the cases contain no more than 100 parts per million of lead when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. Additionally, Section 3 of the Settlement Agreement provides penalty augmentations to be paid by Fellowes if Brimer discovers and is able to attain convincing evidence that Fellowes distributed the cases for electronic devices in sales volumes that are materially different from those identified by Fellowes prior to the execution of the Settlement Agreement.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $33,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Brimer and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.