Vinocur v. Buyers Products Company

The parties involved in the case Vinocur v. Buyers Products Company executed a Consent Judgment on April 4, 2019.  In this matter, citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur alleged that Buyers Products Company (“Buyers Products”) sold vinyl/PVC ratchet tie-downs with grips of varying sizes and construction 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 agreement, Buyers Products agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC ratchet tie-downs in California after the San Francisco County Superior Court approves the Judgment, unless the ratchet tie-downs contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies OR have Proposition 65 warnings provided. 

 

The Consent Judgment required settlement payments of up to $32,750, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Vinocur and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.