Held v. Cels Enterprises Inc.

On January 5, 2011, Cels Enterprises Inc. ("Cels Enterprises"), executed a stipulation for Entry of Judgment whereby it elected to participate in a consolidated Consent Judgment to address the plaintiff Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that Cels sold products in the State of California containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") without the requisite Proposition 65 warnings. The products covered by this stipulation are footwear containing DEHP and the phthalate chemical di-n-butyl phthalate ("DBP") sold to California citizens by Cels Enterprises.

As part of the settlement, Cels Enterprises agreed not to sell in California any footwear after December 15, 2011, unless each accessible component of the footwear contains less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP and DBP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. In the interim, Cels Enterprises was required to provide the agreed upon reformulation standard to its then-current vendors of footwear sold or offered for sale to California citizens and was required to instruct each vendor to use reasonable efforts to provide footwear that complies with the aforementioned reformulation standard expeditiously.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $36,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.

On August 29, 2010, the San Francisco Superior Court consolidated two actions brought by citizen enforcers Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. and John Moore against the defendant manufacturers, distributors and retailers of fashion accessories alleged to have sold products containing the phthalate chemical DEHP to California citizens without the requisite health hazard warnings. The settling defendants elected to participate in this settlement. A summary of the consolidated action and settlement can be found in Held v. Aldo U.S., Inc., et al. and Moore v. Kate Spade, et al. Lead Case No. CGC-10-497729. Click here for primary case record