Vinocur v. Marco Group, Inc.

Citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur’s allegations against defendant Marco Group, Inc. (Marco) were resolved on November 4, 2013, when the parties executed a Consent Judgment.  In this matter, Vinocur alleged that Marco sold padded upholstered furniture including office/stacking chairs with foam padding containing the flame retardant tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, Marco agreed not to sell any chairs or other furniture in California after March 31, 2014, unless the chairs contain no more than 25 parts per million of TDCPP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. Additionally, Marco agreed to provide its vendors with the reformulation standards by November 13, 2013, and instruct them to provide chairs that comply expeditiously.  Chairs currently existing in Marco’s inventory may be sold with Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Marco 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 Marco should provide written certification that all chairs sold in California after March 15, 2014, contain no detectable amounts of tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate (“TDBPP”) in addition to satisfying the TDCPP requirement.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $124,000, 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.