Following action by an alliance of industry groups, the California agency that oversees Proposition 65 recently withdrew proposed changes to the statute that impacted safe harbor warning procedures for almost all consumer products sold online or through mobile device applications.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s (OEHHA) proposed modifications would have made online merchants provide Prop 65 warnings during the purchase process and on the actual item.
In a letter to the OEHHA, the Consumer Brands Association, the California Chamber of Commerce, and two dozen other trade groups opposed the changes on several grounds, including disproportionately burdening the online marketplace compared to brick-and-mortar retailers. The group also noted that requiring warnings not just online but on the actual product would have meant creating a second stock of products for California.
The modifications would have effectively changed the rules on businesses, Adam Regele, CalChamber environmental policy advocate, told the Northern California Record by email.
“OEHHA's decision to rescind proposed amendments to Sections 25602 and 25607 will protect thousands of businesses selling into the California marketplace from having to completely change their Prop 65 compliance programs, again, and protect businesses against frivolous Prop 65 lawsuits,” Regele said. “Notably, the decision will also help to prevent exacerbating the Prop 65 over warning problem.”
The coalition letter was submitted as part of the initial public comment period on the Prop 65 changes.
“After carefully reviewing the comments received, OEHHA is withdrawing certain proposed changes to the regulation at this time,” the agency stated in a Sept. 11 notice.
The OEHHA’s additional public comment period on the regulation modifications ended Oct. 5.
“The proliferation of Prop 65 warnings makes it nearly impossible for consumers to tell which products bearing a warning presents an actual risk to human health, thereby undermining the spirit of the law and its purpose of informing California consumers,” Regele said. “Meaningful reform to Prop 65 that ends shakedown lawsuits will improve how the public is warned of actual risks.”
A recent article posted on Food Law Latest notes that Prop 65 filings have been on the rise during the COVID-19 pandemic.