On April 2, 2025, Inhance Technologies LLC initiated an action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—Inhance Technologies LLC v. Zeldin, Case No. 1:25-cv-00980-JEB—challenging EPA’s refusal to withhold allegedly “highly confidential test data” from disclosure in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FOIA request, submitted by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), sought information about PFAS in containers fluorinated by Inhance. Inhance alleges that this FOIA request was “part of a broader public relations and litigation campaign that PEER and CEH have been waging against the company for years.” Complaint, ¶ 29. Inhance alleges that, in particular, PEER and CEH sought disclosure of information that had been submitted to EPA during an investigation and enforcement action by the agency under Section 5 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), including information that Inhance had designated as confidential business information not subject to FOIA disclosure, per TSCA and applicable EPA regulations. (Inhance ultimately prevailed in that underlying enforcement action in March 2024, as previously discussed in a prior post).

EPA requested that Inhance substantiate its confidential business information claim as to 262 documents that fell within the scope of the FOIA request. Inhance alleges that it substantiated all such claims, including with respect to 217 documents “reflecting information related to Inhance’s proprietary process—test data investigating the conditions under which PFAS impurities may form during Inhance’s fluorination process,” including “reports and spreadsheets summarizing internal and third-party analytical results prepared in furtherance of Inhance’s research and development program.” Complaint, ¶ 33. On February 28, 2025, EPA issued its final confidentiality determination and notified Inhance that the agency intended to release these 217 documents, in full or in part, because “Inhance had not demonstrated a likelihood that the disclosure would lead to substantial competitive harm.” Complaint, ¶ 37. Inhance alleges that EPA’s decision is a misapplication of FOIA Exemption 4, TSCA, and EPA’s regulations, and constitutes an arbitrary and capricious action in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The complaint is available here.