Held v. Y&S Handbags, Inc.

On March 12, 2012, the Marin County Superior Court entered a Consent Judgment in Held v. Y&S Handbags, Inc., et al., which resolved citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E.'s allegations that the defendant Y&S Handbags, Inc. ("Y&S") sold handbags in the State of California containing the phthalate chemical di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate ("DEHP") without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Y&S agreed not sell in California any handbags after September 1, 2012, unless such handbags contain less than .1 percent of DEHP in each accessible component when analyzed pursuant to state and federally approved testing methodologies. Additionally, Y&S agreed to provide the reformulation standard established in Section 2.1 of the Consent Judgment to its then-current vendors and instruct each vendor to use reasonable efforts to provide handbags that comply with reformulation standards. Due to Y&S's commitment to comply by these heightened standards, Held agreed to credit a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $40,500, 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.