Prop 65: can professional filers be stopped — and how to be a bad target

Why professional filers exist

California's Proposition 65 has private enforcement built in by design: any private individual or law firm can serve a public 60-day notice and keep a share of civil penalties, plus attorney's fees recovered in settlements. Because the incentive is structural, professional filers will exist for as long as the law does — no label, letter, or marketplace policy removes the economics. What a seller controls is how attractive a target they are.

The four-point strategy

1. Have the paperwork before anyone asks. Supplier material declarations and accredited-lab test reports are what actually answer a composition question. In globalEPR.ai, record supplier declarations on the Suppliers page (you can request missing documents from a supplier through a secure link) and attach lab test reports under Files & Test Reports or directly on the SKU — typed substance test results flow into the Prop 65 assessment automatically.
2. Warn correctly where required. A compliant warning — including the short-form warning where its conditions are met — removes the core theory of a claim (exposure without warning). Whether a warning is required is normally answered by test data, and OEHHA discourages unsupported "just in case" over-warning. The Prop 65 page screens each SKU and suggests when a warning is recommended, with a per-SKU chemical picker for the label.
3. Never speculate about composition in writing. Marketplace threads are permanent records; one written sentence ("may contain trace amounts of…") can supply the acknowledgment a claim was missing. Composition questions are answered by the documents in point 1, not by guesses in a chat window.
4. Watch the public record while the window is open. Every 60-day notice is public from the day it is served. The free public notice checker at globalepr.ai/tools/prop65-notice-checker lets you search filings and set up a free email watchlist on your brand, company, and shop names, so you learn of a filing while the notice window is still open. Platform subscribers also get daily screening of new notices against their full brand and importer list.

What this does — and does not — achieve

This does not make a seller immune; it changes the economics. A seller with documentation on file, correct warnings, a clean written record, and early awareness is expensive to pursue and unlikely to settle out of fear.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a warning is required for a specific product, and anything involving a served notice, settlement, or defense, is the territory of a licensed attorney experienced with Prop 65.