Held v. Daiso California LLC

On February 26, 2015, the parties executed an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved the allegations that whistleblower Anthony E. Held, Ph.D, P.E., made against settling party Daiso California LLC (“Daiso”).  In this matter, Held alleged that Daiso sold dried seaweed containing the chemical arsenic, earphones with vinyl/PVC cords containing di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”), and headphones containing DEHP in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Daiso agreed not to sell any dried seaweed in California after February 15, 2015, unless the seaweed contains less than 5 parts per billion of arsenic and the earphones with vinyl/PVC cords and headphones contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, or have Proposition 65 warnings provided as described in section 2.3.  Should Daiso provide written certification by August 15, 2015, that all seaweed, earphones with vinyl/PVC cords, and headphones qualify as reformulated, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied. 

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $45,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.