On November 2, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Improvement Act of 2015.  The law required all federal agencies to increase civil penalties with inflation. While there were previous requirements to increase civil penalties, the new law provides for more dramatic increases attributable to the following changes:

  • Requires

 In a very significant case, the Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for U.S. EPA imposed a $2.5 million dollar penalty against a manufacturer, Elementis Chromium, Inc. ("Elementis") for failing to submit a health study to EPA pursuant to the requirements of TSCA.  The EPA imposed the large penalty despite the fact,

  • Many of the