Vinocur v. Cohesion Products, LLC

Citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur’s allegations against defendant Cohesion Products, LLC (“Cohesion”) were resolved on October 10, 2013, when the parties executed a Consent Judgment.  In this matter, Vinocur alleged that Cohesion sold padded upholstered gaming chairs with foam padding containing tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”) and with upholstery vinyl containing di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (“DEHP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Cohesion agreed not to sell any gaming chairs in California after March 31, 2014, unless the chairs contain no more than 25 parts per million each of TDCPP and tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (“TCEP”) and no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP, DBP, and BBP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. Additionally, Cohesion agreed to provide its vendors with the reformulation standards by October 15, 2013, and instruct them to provide chairs that comply expeditiously.  Chairs currently existing in Cohesion’s inventory may be sold with Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Cohesion provide written certification that all chairs sold in California after November 1, 2013 qualify as reformulated, Vinocur agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine.  Additionally, Vinocur provided a credit for extending the breadth of reformulation, among other credits available, if Cohesion should provide written certification that all gaming chairs sold in California after March 31, 2014, contains no detectable amounts of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate (“TDBPP”) in addition to satisfying the TCEP, TDCPP and DEHP requirements.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $105,000, 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.