Brimer v. Pro Performance, LLC and The Sports Authority, Inc.

The parties involved in the enforcement action Brimer v. Pro Performance Sports, LLC, et al. executed a Consent Judgment on May 14, 2014, which resolved citizen enforcer Russell Brimer’s allegations that the defendants Pro Performance Sports, LLC (“Pro Performance”) and The Sports Authority, Inc. (“Sports Authority”) sold flag football sets containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) and heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings. 

As part of the settlement, Pro Performance and Sports Authority agreed not to manufacture or order any flag football sets in California after December 31, 2015, unless the flag football sets contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP and less than 100 parts per million of lead content when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  All flag football sets currently existing in Pro Performance or Sports Authority’s inventories must be sold with warnings provided.  Additionally, Pro Performance and Sports Authority agreed to notify their vendors by September 1, 2014, of the reformulation standards, and instruct them to label or return the flag football sets currently existing in inventory. 

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $280,000, 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.