Vinocur v. Meco Corporation

Citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur’s allegations against defendant Meco Corporation ("Meco”) were resolved on November 26, 2013, when the parties executed a Consent Judgment.  In this matter, Vinocur alleged that Meco sold padded upholstered chairs with foam padding containing the flame retardants tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”) and/or tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (“TCEP”) and chairs with vinyl/PVC covers 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, Meco agreed not to sell any chairs in California after March 31, 2014, unless the chairs contain no more than 25 parts per million of TDCPP and 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, Meco agreed to provide its vendors with the reformulation standards by November 30, 2013, and instruct them to provide chairs that comply expeditiously.  Chairs currently existing in Meco’s inventory may be sold with Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Meco 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 Meco 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 TCEP and TDCPP requirements.

The Consent Judgment requires settlement payments of $142,500, 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.