The Nickel Report

On November 10, 2025, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a pre-publication copy of its proposed rule to significantly reduce the scope of PFAS reporting under Section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Significantly, EPA’s proposal would exempt imported articles from reporting. Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, it will be subject to a 45-day comment period.

Proposed Exemptions to PFAS Reporting Rule

The TSCA PFAS reporting rule, originally finalized in October 2023, requires that manufacturers of PFAS and importers of PFAS and PFAS-containing products report extensive information to EPA about the products they manufacture and import going back to January 1, 2011 (See Hunton’s prior blog post about this rule). The rule does not include any of the exemptions that are traditionally part of TSCA reporting rules, which has caused widespread concern from regulated entities about the massive regulatory burdens created by the rule, particularly for importers of finished products containing any amount of PFAS.

EPA now proposes to add key exemptions to the reporting requirements, including for:

1) PFAS imported as part of an article;

2) PFAS manufactured or imported in a mixture or article below a 0.1% de minimis concentration;

3) PFAS that are impurities;

4) PFAS that are byproducts not used for a commercial purpose or PFAS that are manufactured upon incidental exposure or end use of another substance (referring to the exemptions in EPA’s premanufacture notice (PMN) regulations at 40 C.F.R. § 720.30(h));

5) PFAS that are non-isolated intermediates; and

6) PFAS that are manufactured or imported in small quantities for research and development (R&D) purposes.

Other than the de minimis exemption, these exemptions are typical of TSCA reporting rules, including the chemical data reporting rule (CDR). EPA is also requesting feedback on whether it should consider adding a production volume threshold by which reporting on a given PFAS would not be required, similar to the exemption in the CDR for chemicals manufactured or imported under 25,000 lbs. (or 2,500 lbs. for chemicals subject to certain TSCA actions).

Proposed Extension of Submission Period

EPA is also proposing to delay the reporting submission window, which is currently from April 13, 2026 – October 13, 2026. The new reporting window will start 60 days after the effective dates of the final rule and will last for three months rather than six months. EPA did not provide an update in the proposed rule regarding the status of the development of its electronic reporting application within EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX). EPA has experienced numerous delays in developing this reporting tool for the PFAS reporting rule, resulting in multiple delays of the submission period.

What Aspects of the Reporting Rule Are Staying the Same?

Based on the language in the preamble, EPA intends to retain the original reporting lookback period of January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2022.

EPA is also maintaining its current definition for PFAS as including at least one of these three structures:

• R-(CF2)-CF(R’)R”, where both the CF2 and CF moieties are saturated carbons;
• R-CF2OCF2-R’, where R and R’ can either be F, O, or saturated carbons; and
• CF3C(CF3)R’-R”, where R’ and R” can either be F or saturated carbons.

While EPA is not proposing any changes to the definition of PFAS, it is taking comment on whether it should limit reporting to only PFAS with a Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number (CASRN), TSCA Accession Number, or LVE number.

The specific data required to be reported to EPA, as well as the “known to or reasonably ascertainable by” due diligence standard, remain the same.

Purpose of Proposed Revisions

According to EPA, this proposed rule is intended to make the TSCA PFAS reporting requirements more practical and implementable and to reduce unnecessary, or potentially duplicative, reporting requirements for businesses while maintaining the ability to obtain important use and safety information on PFAS. EPA’s press release includes a statement from Administrator Lee Zeldin that the current TSCA PFAS reporting rule imposes “crushing regulatory burdens and nearly $1 billion in implementation costs on American businesses,” whereas “today’s proposal is grounded in commonsense and the law, allowing [EPA] to collect the information [it needs] to help combat PFAS contamination without placing ridiculous requirements on manufacturers, especially the small businesses that drive our country’s economy.”

EPA is reassessing whether the volume of potential data collected justifies the total burden of implementing the rule and what Congress had intended when it added this requirement to TSCA Section 8. It is intended to maintain meaningful reporting on PFAS while exempting entities that are “least likely to have relevant information.”

Next Steps

Stakeholders impacted by the TSCA PFAS reporting rule are encouraged to provide feedback to the agency on every aspect of the proposed rule, particularly the proposed reporting exemptions.