Herb Estreicher Quoted in Inside TSCA Article on Lawsuit for TSCA CBI Protection

Keller and Heckman Partner Herb Estreicher was quoted in the Inside TSCA article, “Company’s Niche Products Drive Unique Suit For TSCA CBI Protection.” The article refers to Keller and Heckman’s most recent TSCA 30/30 webinar, where Herb mentioned a Georgia chemical company’s pending lawsuit over EPA’s denial of TSCA confidential business information (CBI) protection for its products. This appears to be the first time a company has challenged such a determination.

Herb reasoned that other companies may not have ever filed similar claims due to the expense of litigation. “The Georgia case may be special in that the small company's entire business depended on the trade secret identity. Perhaps they do not have patent protection, or it had lapsed,” Herb said.

Herb explained that “if you do bring an appeal, EPA will not disclose the information until the court registers judgments, which could be several years,” except in some limited exceptions, such as Congress ordering the disclosure. “You would think that a lot of companies would take advantage of” this protection, or at least file an appeal to delay disclosure of their CBI, “which presumably is very, very important to them,” he said, but it appears that Burgess Pigment is the only company to have ever brought such an appeal.

To read the full article, please click here (subscription required).