Held v. M.Z. Berger & Company, Inc.

On November 20, 2015, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D, P.E. and settling party M.Z. Berger & Company, Inc. ( “M.Z. Berger”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Held had alleged that M.Z. Berger sold vinyl/PVC watch boxes 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, M.Z. Berger agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC watch boxes in California after March 1, 2016, unless the boxes 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.  Should M.Z. Berger provide Held with written certification by February 16, 2016 that all vinyl/PVC watch boxes sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $30,000, 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.