NAW appeals ruling upholding Oregon packaging EPR law

USA – The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors has appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking to overturn an August 2026 judgment that affirmed Oregon’s Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernisation Act.

The lower court concluded that substantive factual matters were largely undisputed and that the dispute centred on legal questions, which the appellate bench evaluates without deference to the initial ruling. 

NAW contends the statute breaches the dormant Commerce Clause by placing financial burdens on distributors that manage neither goods packaging nor final shipping destinations.

According to the plaintiff, these obligations oblige interstate enterprises to alter supply chains or circumvent the state entirely. 

Furthermore, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality anticipated that regulated entities would shift programme expenses onto out-of-state buyers to shield residents from higher prices.

Due Process Claim Targets Delegated Fee Authority

The legal challenge alleges a violation of the Due Process Clause resulting from the state transferring administrative oversight, fee structures and collection duties to the Circular Action Alliance, an independent entity with its own commercial interests. 

The organisation calculates mandatory payments through a formula it categorises as confidential, while obliging contributors to resolve payment disagreements through compulsory arbitration.

Litigation Timeline Spans Preliminary Injunction and Federal Trial

The litigation commenced when NAW brought the lawsuit in July 2025. 

The district court issued a preliminary injunction protecting association members in February 2026, representing the initial judicial stay against state EPR enforcement, followed by a July 2026 hearing that served as the first federal constitutional trial regarding such laws. 

The August judgment upheld the statute, prompting the current appeal.

National EPR Challenges Advance Across Multiple States

Eric Hoplin, president and chief executive of NAW, said the facts established at trial had not changed and still showed Oregon’s law was unconstitutional. 

He added that the district court reached the wrong legal conclusions and that the association was asking the Ninth Circuit to correct them. 

In addition to the Oregon action, NAW serves as the sole commercial claimant within a 17-state coalition challenging California’s EPR statute and is pursuing a separate lawsuit against Colorado’s EPR legislation, with both matters pending resolution. 

The outcome carries significance for packaging producers and distributors nationwide, since extended producer responsibility frameworks increasingly determine who bears the cost of collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure, and how those obligations are allocated across supply chain participants.

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