Held v. Coyne's & Company, Inc.

On May 19, 2011, Coyne's & Company, Inc. ("Coyne's"), executed an Amended Stipulation for Entry of Judgment electing to opt-into this Amended Consent Judgment to address the plaintiff Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that Coyne's sold products containing the phthalate chemicals di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") butyl benzyl phthalate ("BBP"), and Di-n-butyl phthalate ("DBP") in the State of California without providing the requisite Proposition 65 warnings. The products covered by this stipulation include wallets and other coin and bill holders, handbags, purses, clutches, and totes, jewelry, key holders, keychains, and key caps, luggage tags and ID cases, bag charms and zipper pulls, eyeglass cases, cases/coverings for mobile electronic devices, coverings for journal/address books, cosmetic cases/bags, and toiletry cases/bags containing DEHP, DBP, and BBP, sold to California citizens by Coyne's.

As part of the settlement, Coyne's agreed not to sell any covered products in California after December 15, 2011, unless the products are reformulated to contain 1,000 parts per million or less of DEHP, DBP, and BBP each in each accessible component. In the interim, Coyne's was required to provide the agreed upon reformulation standard to its then-current vendors of covered products sold or offered for sale to California citizens and were to instruct each vendor to use reasonable efforts to provide products that comply with the reformulation standard expeditiously.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $51,500 divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to Held's counsel 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. On March 22, 2011, an Amended Consent Judgment for this matter, which added the two additional phthalates BBP and DBP, was approved. 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