Moorberg v. Southern Telecom Inc.

On April 8, 2015, Mark Moorberg and settling party Southern Telecom Inc. (“Southern”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Moorberg had alleged that Southern sold headphones with vinyl/PVC ear cushions 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, Southern agreed not to sell any headphones with vinyl/PVC ear cushions in California after May 31, 2015, unless the headphones 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 Southern provide Moorberg with written certification by June 1, 2015 that all headphones sold in California have been reformulated, Moorberg has agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $30,500, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Moorberg and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.