Defending Teflon

Challenge

The patent holder of Teflon™, a US Fortune 500 chemical company, approached Alber & Geiger seeking regulatory and advocacy support over a European Union proposal that would ban all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Those PFAS are chemicals that came under regulatory fire as being the so called “forever chemicals”, which persist in the environment.

Strategy

Under the EU chemicals strategy, we embarked on a defense for the specific PFAS named GenX and Teflon™, based on the planned EU PFAS restrictions. Considering the impact of the restrictions to the supply chains of various Member States, Alber & Geiger entered into discussions with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Commission, the European Parliament, the EU Permanent Representations and the Member States’ Ministries of Industry and Environment.

Results

We managed to make EU regulators and lawmakers understand that they needed to differentiate between existing PFAS, not looking at the whole PFAS group as one, rather considering different regulatory options per segments of PFAS. That got reflected in lawmakers distinguishing between solid forms of PFAS like Teflon™ and its production catalysts like GenX, from the general PFAS ban.