DiPirro v. AOpen America Incorporated

On February 2, 2009, the Alameda County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in DiPirro v. AOpen America Incorporated, which resolved citizen enforcer Michael DiPirro's allegations that the defendant AOpen America Incorporated ("AOpen") sold motherboards with solder containing the heavy metal lead in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, AOpen agreed not to sell any motherboards in California after May 15, 2008, unless the motherboards contain no more than .1% lead by weight in each solder material (unless the material is embedded in a manner that a consumer or worker would not come into contact with the lead during reasonably foreseeable use) or have Proposition 65 warnings provided. Additionally, in a good faith effort to warn the public about the risk of exposure to lead from motherboards sold before May 15, 2008, AOpen agreed to post a Proposition 65 warning on its website for three years. Due to AOpen's prompt cooperation and commitment to reformulation, DiPirro agreed to credit a portion of the civil fine. Should AOpen comply with the optional penalty reductions outlined in Section 3.1 of the Consent Judgment, DiPirro agreed to waive an additional portion of the fine.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $55,000, 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 DiPirro and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.