Held v. The Procter & Gamble Company

The parties involved in the case Held v. The Procter & Gamble Company executed a Consent Judgment on July 3, 2017.  In this matter, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. alleged that The Procter & Gamble Company (“P&G”) sold sunscreen containing the chemical benzophenone in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.  

As part of the agreement, P&G agreed not to sell any sunscreen in California after the Marin County Superior Court approves the Judgment, unless the sunscreen contains no more than 20 parts per million of benzophenone in the finished, or contain no more than 200 ppm in the ingredient octocrylene when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.

The Consent Judgment required settlement payments of up to $48,500, 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.