Held v. Hot Topic, Inc.; et al.

On August 22, 2012, the San Francisco County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Hot Topic, Inc.; et al., which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendant T.U.K., Inc. ("T.U.K.") sold footwear 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, T.U.K. agreed not to sell any footwear in California after December 31, 2012, unless the footwear is reformulated to contain less than 1,000 parts per million ("ppm") of DEHP in each accessible component when analyzed using state and federally approved testing methodologies. T.U.K. also agreed to place Proposition 65 warnings on any footwear it did not reformulate. Due to T.U.K.'s willingness to comply with these heightened standards, Held agreed to credit T.U.K. with a portion of the civil penalties that would otherwise be applied.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $44,500, 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.