News

New York Ingredient Disclosure Rule Invalidated By Courts

On August 27, the New York State Supreme Court invalidated New York’s Ingredient Disclosure Program for not following proper rulemaking procedures.

Compliance with the program had been delayed twice from its original July 1, 2019 deadline due to a lawsuit filed jointly by the Household Consumer Products Association (HCPA) and the American Cleaning Institute. 

The lawsuit was filed in part because the program was written in a way that is much more onerous and overly broad compared to California’s Cleaning Product Right to Know Act of 2017. For now, the cleaning industry has been granted a reprieve and does not have to observe New York’s ingredient disclosure requirements.

ISSA members no longer need to comply with New York’s program by January 2020, as the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation will now have to go through proper rulemaking, which will likely take significant time. California’s program is still set to go into effect January of 2020 and was not impacted by the ruling.

As a benefit to its members, ISSA has scheduled two events to explain the current landscape and help bring your company into compliance with California’s ingredient disclosure requirements:

• On October 9, ISSA will host a webinar: What’s up with ingredient disclosure. You can register here.
• On November 18, ISSA will co-host a full-day workshop with HCPA in Las Vegas just prior to ISSA North America Show 2019. Registration is separate from the trade show and can be completed here.

Additionally, ISSA has posted very detailed summaries of both the California and New York State ingredient disclosure requirements.

ISSA will continue to support consistent disclosure and labeling requirements and oppose a patchwork approach that unduly burdens small businesses, does not protect proprietary business information, and undermines public health by dissuading the use of safe and effective cleaning products.

The association will continue to track these measures and keep its members in the loop as discussions, efforts, and laws relating to ingredient disclosure occur. Feel free to contact ISSA Director of Government Affairs John Nothdurft for additional information  regarding ingredient disclosure, other legal issues, or ISSA’s advocacy efforts.