Products Liability Actions Under the Florida Pesticide Law

Plain English Breakdown

The bill text states that liability protection applies if the label meets one of three specific conditions regarding EPA approval or assessments.

Limits on Lawsuits About Pesticide Warnings

This bill stops people from suing pesticide makers for failing to warn about risks if the product label meets specific federal conditions.

What This Bill Does

• Creates a new state law that blocks lawsuits claiming pesticides did not provide enough warnings under certain conditions.
• Stops these lawsuits when the pesticide is registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its label was approved by the EPA, matches recent health risk reports from the agency, or matches the EPA's cancer classification for the product.
• Keeps manufacturers liable if the EPA determines they knowingly hid, lied about, or destroyed safety information to get their labels approved.

Who It Names or Affects

• Manufacturers of pesticides registered with the federal government
• People who might sue pesticide makers for not warning them about dangers

Terms To Know

Products liability action

A lawsuit filed against a maker or seller because their product caused harm.

Failure to warn

Claiming that a company did not tell users about possible dangers of using the product.

FIFRA

The federal law called the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act that controls pesticide rules.

Limits and Unknowns

• This rule only applies to pesticides registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• Manufacturers can still be sued if the EPA determines they knowingly hid or lied about health risks to get their labels approved.
• The bill does not explain how courts will decide what counts as 'knowingly' hiding information.

Official Summary Text

Products Liability Actions Under the Florida Pesticide Law; Prohibits pesticide-related products liability action for failure to warn if pesticide's label meets specified conditions.

Current Bill Text

HB 443 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb443-00
Page 1 of 2
F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

A bill to be entitled 1
An act relating to products liability actions under 2
the Florida Pesticide Law; creating s. 487.082, F.S.; 3
prohibiting a pesticide-related products liability 4
action for failure to warn if the pesticide's label 5
meets specified conditions; providing an exception; 6
providing an effective date. 7
8
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 9
10
Section 1. Section 487.082, Florida Statutes, is created 11
to read: 12
487.082 Products liability actions.—A products liability 13
action under this part based on a failure to warn may not be 14
brought or maintained with respect to any pesticide registered 15
with the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the 16
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), 7 17
U.S.C. ss. 136 et seq., if the label for such pesticide is: 18
(1) Approved by the United States Environmental Protection 19
Agency; 20
(2) Consistent with the most recent human health risk 21
assessment performed under FIFRA; or 22
(3) Consistent with the United States Environmental 23
Protection Agency's carcinogenicity classification of the 24
pesticide under FIFRA. 25

HB 443 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb443-00
Page 2 of 2
F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

26
However, this section does not shield from liability a 27
manufacturer that the United States Environmental Protection 28
Agency determines knowingly withheld, concealed, misrepresented, 29
or destroyed material information regarding the human health 30
risks or carcinogenicity of a pesticide in order to obtain or 31
maintain approval of the label for the pesticide by the United 32
States Environmental Protection Agency. 33
Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2026. 34