Brimer v. Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc., et al.

On February 8, 2007, the San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Brimer v. Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc., et al., which resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer's allegations that the defendant, Fingerhut Direct Marketing, Inc. ("Fingerhut"), sold ceramicware and glass and metal products containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Fingerhut agreed not to sell any ceramicware or the specific glass and metal products identified in the Consent Judgment in California after November 9, 2006, unless the products have Proposition 65 warnings provided or comply with the reformulation standards. Fingerhut committed to reformulate at least 80% of its products by February 7, 2007, and agreed to make all commercially reasonable efforts to reformulate all of their products in the future.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $30,000, to be 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.