Held v. Speen & Company, Inc.

Whistleblower Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.’s allegations against settling party Speen & Company, Inc. (“Speen”) were resolved on April 25, 2013, when the parties entered into an out-of-court Settlement Agreement.  Held alleged that Speen 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, Speen agreed not to sell any footwear in California after April 8, 2013, unless the footwear contains less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  Should Speen provide written certification that by July 1, 2013, and continuing into the future, all footwear sold in California shall 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 $24,500, 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.