Shortly after announcing a case against a chemical supplier for failing to disclose imports of “hundreds of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals and their intended use,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 4, 2026, a settlement with an international agribusiness company for claims of violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) at its facilities in California and Washington. According to EPA, Wilbur-Ellis Company agreed to pay a penalty of $630,737 for...
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on June 1, 2026, that it has filed an administrative complaint against Wego Chemical Group and related companies (Wego) for violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to EPA, the complaint is the result of Wego’s “years-long” failure to report properly its import and domestic distribution of chemical substances. EPA states that since at least 2016, Wego imported “hundreds of millions of pounds of hundreds of...
The state of Oregon’s packaging and paper Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program, enacted in 2021, has progressed into its enforcement stage. With the first fee obligations and real-world compliance deadlines now in place, the risk of litigation under and against the program has transitioned from theoretical to real. In July 2025, a major trade association, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), filed a constitutional challenge to Oregon’s law, raising issues that are...
On January 17, 2025, days before the end of President Biden’s term, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released two new enforcement documents: (1) Expedited Settlement Agreement (ESA) Pilot Program Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) (FIFRA Settlement Pilot Program or Pilot Program); and (2) Interim Consolidated Enforcement Response and Penalty Policy (Interim CERPP) for the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New and Existing Chemicals Program....
March 7, 2025
ECHA Updates Annual Evaluation Statistics and Recommendations to Registrants on Improving Dossiers
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on February 26, 2025, that it has updated its annual statistics on evaluation progress. According to ECHA, between 2009 and 2024, it checked the compliance of 15,500 Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation registrations, representing 23 percent of all submitted registration dossiers and covering 3,200 substances. For high-volume chemicals registered at quantities of 100 metric tons or more per year,...
September 28, 2023
EPA and DOJ Claim eBay Unlawfully Sold Pesticides, Banned Chemical Products, and Devices That Defeat Pollution Controls on Motor Vehicles
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 27, 2023, that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of EPA, filed a complaint against eBay Inc. (eBay) “for unlawfully selling, offering for sale, causing the sale of, and distributing hundreds of thousands of products” in violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). According to EPA, the complaint seeks a...