Vinocur v. U.S. Wire & Cable Corporation

On June 23, 2018, citizen enforcer Laurence Vinocur and settling party U.S. Wire & Cable Corporation (“U.S. Wire”) entered into an out-of-court settlement agreement. Vinocur had alleged that U.S. Wire sold vinyl/PVC cords containing the phthalate chemical diisononyl phthalate (“DINP”) in the State of California without providing the requisite health hazard warnings.

As part of the settlement, U.S. Wire agreed not to sell any vinyl/PVC cords in California after June 13, 2018, unless the cords contain less than 1,000 parts per million of DINP when analyzed using state or federally approved testing methodologies or have Proposition 65 warnings included.

The Settlement Agreement requires settlement payments of $25,000, 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.