PFAS Observer
Enacted into law in 2023, Minnesota’s “Products Containing PFAS” legislation, Minn. Stat. § 116.943 (also known as “Amara’s Law”), imposes obligations on manufacturers, importers, and distributors of products containing intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Specifically, the law requires manufacturers (defined to include, depending on the situation, manufacturers, brand owners, importers, and distributors) of products with intentionally added PFAS (broadly defined to include any scenario in which PFAS is intended to be present in the final product[1]) to complete mandatory reporting to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) of each product sold, offered for sale, or distributed by the manufacturer in Minnesota. The law also requires phased prohibitions on the sale of certain PFAS-containing products in the state. Carpets, cleaning products, cookware, cosmetics, menstruation products, and more, will be prohibited from sale as early as 2025, with a general ban on all PFAS-containing products taking effect by 2032 unless the product and its use are deemed “currently unavoidable.”
Minnesota’s law is modeled after Maine’s PFAS-in-products statute (Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 38, § 1614), which imposed similar reporting and prohibition requirements. However, both states have since acknowledged practical challenges of compliance with the statutes as written, particularly for manufacturers with complex global supply chains, which has prompted the states to delay implementation pending modification of the laws accordingly.
In the case of the Minnesota law, MPCA on July 23, 2025, extended the deadline for manufacturers to provide notice regarding intentionally modified PFAS from January 1, 2026, to July 1, 2026. As MPCA stated in its guidance regarding PFAS reporting, the purpose of the extension was intended to give manufacturers ample time to (1) put agreements in place with suppliers to make reports on their behalf and (2) to become familiar with MPCA’s reporting platform, which will become available in Fall 2025.
Despite the postponed reporting date, businesses may wish to consider proceeding with diligence in terms of preparing their notifications. This is due to the ubiquity of PFAS in industrial, commercial, and consumer products, as well as the fact that supply chain investigations will likely be necessary to discern whether certain types of products—such as manufactured articles that are not accompanied with chemical specification sheets—contain PFAS. One way to screen such products for reporting is to consider whether they are intended to exhibit traits such as fire-, water-, grease- and stain-resistance, characteristics often associated with the presence of PFAS.
As to covered products, the following information must be provided:
- A description of the product, including a Universal Product Code (UPC), stock keeping unit (SKU), or other numeric identifier;
- The purpose of the PFAS used in the product;
- The amount of each PFAS compound (by weight or concentration), as highlighted by its chemical abstracts service registry number;
- The name and address of the manufacturer and a contact person representing the manufacturer;
- Any additional information required by MPCA rulemaking.
With permission from MPCA, a manufacturer may supply the required information described above for a type or category of products rather than each individual product. MPCA may also waive all or part of this information if the agency determines that the information is already publicly available.
|
Statutory/Regulatory Development |
Date |
| PFAS in products reporting requirements signed into law | May 2023 |
| PFAS reporting and fees rulemaking process develops; manufacturers to gather information for reporting | 2023–2026 |
| Initial reporting due to MPCA | July 1, 2026 |
| Annual update or certification begins | February 1, 2027 |
| Sale of all PFAS-containing products banned unless currently unavoidable | July 1, 2032 |
Manufacturers failing to comply with the requirements may face both criminal and civil penalties, though it remains to be seen how enforcement will be implemented in practice. MPCA is authorized to enforce the statute under its general environmental enforcement authority. Penalties may include criminal misdemeanor convictions, civil penalties of up to $30,000 per day of violation, injunctions to cease operations, actions to compel compliance with the laws, and administrative penalties of up to $25,000 per violation.
MPCA’s extension has provided manufacturers with more time to identify products containing intentionally added PFAS sold in Minnesota, and request that upstream suppliers disclose any intentionally added PFAS in products sold. In the meantime, Minnesota’s PFAS framework is still under development and further rulemaking will occur throughout late 2025 and into 2026.
[1] https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/116.943. Notably, “PFAS” is defined as any fluorinated organic chemical that contains a minimum of one fluorinated carbon atom, encompassing widely fluoropolymers. Which are widely used in commercial and industrial applications.