Vinocur v. The Container Store, Inc.

On April 5, 2018, citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur and settling parties The Container Store Group, Inc. and The Container Store, Inc. (collectively, “TCSG”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement. Vinocur had alleged that TCSG sold vinyl/PVC storage bin 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, TCSG agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC storage bin handles in California after March 30, 2018, unless the storage bin handles 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 Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $24,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcer Vinocur and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.