Leeman v. Premiere Living Products, LLC

Citizen enforcer Dr. Whitney R. Leeman and settling party Premiere Living Products, LLC (“Premiere”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement on June 11, 2015.  Leeman had alleged that Premiere sold pet baskets with vinyl/PVC handles and storage baskets with vinyl/PVC handles 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, Premiere agreed not to sell any pet or storage baskets with vinyl/PVC handles in California after June 15, 2015, unless the baskets contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or bear a Proposition 65 warning pursuant to section 2.2 of the agreement.  Should Premiere provide Leeman with written certification by September 1, 2015 that all pet baskets with vinyl/PVC handles and storage baskets with vinyl/PVC handles sold in California qualify as reformulated products under the agreement, Leeman agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty that would otherwise be applied.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $42,500, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Leeman and her counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.