NAW Sues to Block Colorado EPR Regulation in Newest Authorized Submitting

The Nationwide Affiliation of Wholesaler-Distributors has filed a federal lawsuit and movement for preliminary injunction difficult Colorado’s Prolonged Producer Duty packaging regulation.

NAW introduced July 30 that it filed NAW v. Ryan within the U.S. District Courtroom for the District of Colorado, difficult the state’s Producer Duty Program for Statewide Recycling Act, also referred to as Home Invoice 22-1355. The affiliation is asking the courtroom to dam enforcement of the regulation whereas the case proceeds.

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NAW is the only plaintiff within the case and is represented by Andrew Morris and Jacob Huebert of the New Civil Liberties Alliance.

Colorado’s regulation establishes a statewide recycling program for many consumer-product packaging and paper merchandise offered within the state. This system shifts recycling prices from native governments and taxpayers to corporations the regulation defines as “producers,” which might embody wholesale distributors.

The regulation requires coated producers to hitch Round Motion Alliance, a personal producer duty group designated by the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere. CAA is allowed to set and accumulate charges from producers to fund Colorado’s recycling program. The grievance says CAA’s founding members embody giant nationwide and multinational corporations, together with Amazon, Walmart, The Coca-Cola Co., Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Goal and others.

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NAW’s grievance argues that Colorado’s EPR regulation is unconstitutional as a result of it delegates authorities fee-setting authority to a personal group with out enough requirements or oversight, compels companies to hitch and fund CAA, prohibits companies from disclosing government-mandated charges to prospects and forces corporations to fund speech they could not help.

“That is now the third EPR lawsuit we’ve been concerned with submitting. Whereas every state regulation has its personal idiosyncratic variations, our overarching problem stays the identical,” NAW President and CEO Eric Hoplin stated. “No state ought to restrict interstate commerce, nor ought to they delegate energy to set and accumulate charges to a 3rd celebration outdoors the scope of public scrutiny.”

Colorado producers have been required to take part in this system since July 1, 2025, and started paying obligatory charges in January 2026, in response to NAW.

“Producers and types get to decide on what supplies go into their packaging, however distributors don’t,” added Brian Wild, NAW’s Chief Authorities Relations Officer. “But Colorado’s regulation nonetheless pulls some distributors into its charge construction as ‘producers,’ and people prices movement by way of the provision chain to companies and customers past Colorado’s borders.”

The Colorado submitting follows NAW’s earlier authorized challenges to EPR legal guidelines in Oregon and California. In February, a federal courtroom in Oregon granted NAW members preliminary injunctive reduction in opposition to enforcement of Oregon’s EPR regulation, discovering that the regulation raised severe constitutional questions beneath the Due Course of Clause and Dormant Commerce Clause. The Oregon case went to trial July 13-17 in Portland, OR, and post-trial briefing is underway.

NAW additionally joined a multistate lawsuit difficult California’s SB 54 packaging EPR regulation as the one enterprise plaintiff in that case.

Premium: What Distributors Ought to Learn about Prolonged Producer Duty Legal guidelines

MDM Evaluation

EPR legal guidelines are a big regulatory challenge for distributors as a result of they’ll assign packaging charge and reporting obligations to corporations that usually don’t design or select the packaging they deal with. For distributors with broad product portfolios, compliance can require monitoring packaging supplies, weights and product movement throughout advanced provide chains and totally different state guidelines. As extra states undertake EPR frameworks, distributors might face a rising patchwork of registration, reporting, charge and invoice-disclosure necessities that provides value, authorized threat and operational complexity throughout interstate commerce.