Lee v. Amazon.com, Inc.

BACKGROUND

California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Act) (Health & Saf. Code, § 25249.5 et seq.), adopted by voter initiative in 1986 and commonly known as Proposition 65, provides, “No person in the course of doing business shall knowingly and intentionally expose any individual to a chemical known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity without first giving clear and reasonable warning to such individual, except as provided in Section 25249.10.” (Health & Saf. Code, § 25249.6.) Mercury and mercury compounds were listed by the state as reproductive toxins under Proposition 65 in 1990. (Cal. Code. Regs., tit. 27,2 § 27001, subd. (c); see Health & Saf. Code, § 25249.8.)

1 The Attorney General filed an amicus brief in support of Lee pursuant California Rules of Court, rule 8.200(c)(7). Exercising his authority to represent the public interest, the Attorney General explains he has a “special interest in the proper interpretation and enforcement of” Proposition 65 as the “public official with statewide authority to enforce” the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 and “the only public official with authority to review and…