Englander v. Winners Only, Inc.

Whistleblower Peter Englander and settling party Winners Only, Inc. (“Winners”) entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement on August 7, 2013, which resolved Englander’s allegations that Winners sold chairs with vinyl/PVC seats 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, Winners agreed not to sell any chairs with vinyl/PVC seats in California after August 5, 2013, unless the chairs contain no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP in any accessible component when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or have Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Winners provide written certification that it has met the reformulation standard by January 6, 2014, and continuing into the future, all chairs sold in California qualify as reformulated, Englander agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $37,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Englander and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.