California Proposition 65 is a unique regulation that brings separate compliance requirements from all other regulations in the US (or abroad) and is enforced through civil litigation (via issuance of a Notice of Violation, or “NOV”). A single violation can cost a company upwards of $50,000. At the beginning of each month, we take a quick look at an enforcement summary for the previous month to highlight the types of products being targeted, how frequently, and any new trends in enforcement action that may have appeared.
Hopefully these posts will raise a flag for any company selling these types of products into California so they can take a careful look at their products and get ahead of any potential enforcement!
Here is our summary for December 2022:
– bump in NOV vs. previous month (November = 235) => Yearly totals: 3167 NOV (2022); 3185 (2021); 3514 (2020)
– chocolate: 20 NOV were issued against numerous companies in December for the alleged presence of lead and cadmium in chocolate (81 NOV total for 2022 in this category) – big or small, companies need to continue to monitor for the presence of any listed chemicals. Food companies in particular are at an elevated risk of enforcement activities for heavy metals and need to take proactive steps to avoid costly issues before they are targeted.
– Blush-type cosmetics: another 23 NOV last month targeted in relation to titanium dioxide (brings it up to 197 NOV issued in 2022); this is an enormous issue facing the beauty industry and untangling themselves from this entirely FRIVOLOUS enforcement activity!
– Dietary supplements: 127 NOV issued in 2022 for dietary supplements (vs. 153 in 2021)
Most of these hundreds of violations were avoidable if companies had conducted just a little bit of due diligence – we can help you avoid these issues. Ask us how!
