Vinocur v. Office Depot, Inc.

The parties involved in the enforcement action Vinocur v. Ace Bayou Corp., et al. executed a Consent Judgment on November 24, 2014.  In this matter, citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur alleged that Office Depot, Inc. (“Office Depot”) sold padded upholstered chairs containing the flame retardant chemical tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (“TDCPP”) and vinyl upholstered chairs 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, Office Depot agreed not to sell any padded upholstered chairs or vinyl upholstered chairs in California after the Consent Judgment is approved, unless the chairs contain no detectable amount of TDCPP and no more than 1,000 parts per million of DEHP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies.  In addition, Office Depot has provided their vendors with the reformulation standard and requested them to provide  chairs that comply with the reformulation standards expeditiously.  All current inventory will be sold with Proposition 65 warnings provided.  Should Should Office Depot provide written certification that all chairs sold in California after June 10, 2014, 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 Office Depot should provide written certification that all chairs sold in California after June 10, 2014, contain no detectable amounts of tris (2-chloroethyl) phosphate (“TCEP”) and tris(2,3-dibromopropyl)phosphate (“TDBPP”) in addition to satisfying the TDCPP requirement.

The Consent Judgment required 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.