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 appear.
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 July 2022:
– Comparable number vs. last month (June = 314),
– Cosmetics enforcement has shifted (slightly) over to DEA,
– Methyleugenol is a natural constituent of plants and essential oils: these NOVs are entirely inaccurate and would fall under the “naturally occurring” exemption. Bounty hunters still try to net unprepared companies with these frivolous violation claims.
– Acrylamide will continue to see enforcement, as the injunction only relates to public prosecutors enforcing acrylamide (I will write up a blog post on this topic to help clarify what’s actually going on – stay tuned!).
– Slight drop off in phthalate enforcement from previous months (~100/month); however, this is probably just an blip since targeted products are ubiquitous in the marketplace.
The vast majority of these enforcement issues could have easily been avoided – contact me for a free consultation to learn how!
