Leeman v. Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc.

Citizen enforcer Whitney R. Leeman, Ph.D and settling party Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc. (“Dick’s Sporting Goods”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement on July 14, 2015.  Leeman had alleged that Dick’s Sporting Goods sold cooking utensils with vinyl/PVC grips 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, Dick’s Sporting Goods agreed not to sell any cooking utensils with vinyl/PVC grips in California after July 19, 2015, unless the utensils contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP, di-n-butyl phthalate (“DBP”), butyl benzyl phthalate (“BBP”), and diisononyl phthalate (“DINP”) when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, or bear a Proposition 65 warning pursuant to section 2.1 of the agreement.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $27,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Leeman and her counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.