Held v. Person & Covey, Inc.
The parties involved in the case Held v. Person & Covey, Inc. executed a Consent Judgment on December 15, 2016. In this matter, citizen enforcer Anthony E. Held, Ph.D., P.E. alleged that Person & Covey, Inc. (“P & C”) sold sunscreen containing the chemical benzophenone in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.
As part of the agreement, P & C agreed not to sell any sunscreen in California after June 1, 2020, unless the sunscreen contains no more than certain amounts of benzophenone and/or octocrylene (which contains benzophenone) specified in the settlement when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies. P & C has also agreed to notify its suppliers of the final reformulation standards and urge them to comply expeditiously. Should P & C provide Held with certification by June 1, 2018 that all its sunscreen sold in California meets the final reformulation standards, Held has agreed to waive a portion of the civil penalty.
The Consent Judgment required settlement payments of up to $65,000, divided therein between civil penalties, 75% of which are paid to California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and compensation to whistleblower Held and his counsel for their successful enforcement of this matter in the public interest.