Vinocur v. Smith News Company, Inc.

On April 8, Laurence Vinocur and settling party Smith News Company (“Smith”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement.  Vinocur had alleged that Smith sold balls 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, Smith agreed not to sell any balls with vinyl/PVC covers in California after April 15, 2015, unless the balls 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 pursuant to section 2.3 of the agreement.  Should Smith provide written certification to Vinocur by December 15, 2015 that all balls with vinyl/PVC covers offered for sale in California are reformulated products, Vinocur has agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $30,000, 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.