Wozniak v. Fruit of the Earth, Inc.

On December 15, 2014, the parties executed an out-of-court Settlement Agreement, which resolved the allegations that whistleblowers Paul Wozniak and Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. made against settling party Fruit of the Earth, Inc. (“FOTE”).  In this matter, Wozniak and Held alleged that FOTE sold sunscreen containing the chemical benzophenone in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, FOTE agreed not to sell any sunscreen in California after January 1, 2015, unless the sunscreen contains no more than 12.5 parts per million of benzophenone when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies, or unless a Proposition 65 warning is provided.  Should FOTE provide written certification by December 15, 2015, that all sunscreen sold in California contains no more than 10 ppm of benzophenone, Wozniak and Held agreed to waive a portion of the civil fine that would otherwise be applied.  Additionally, should FOTE certify by December 15, 2016, that all sunscreen sold in California contains no more than 5 ppm of benzophenone, the whistleblowers agreed to waive an additional portion of the penalty.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $282,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to citizen enforcers Wozniak, Held, and their counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.