California’s DPR Issues Guidance on Changes to Pesticide Registration Notifications and Non-Notifications | Beveridge & Diamond PC

What Happened: On February 12, 2026, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) issued Notice 2026-02 to clarify the label and formulation changes that DPR may accept by notification, non-notification, or amendment for all pesticide products. This notice supersedes DPR’s longstanding Notice 2002-1, effective immediately.

Who is Impacted: Pesticide product registrants and other industry stakeholders who produce, distribute, and/or sell pesticides in California.

What Should Parties Consider Doing in Response: Interested parties should carefully review the notice to ensure compliance when implementing pesticide label or formulation changes for products distributed in California.

Background

Unless otherwise exempted, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must register every pesticide product under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) before companies may distribute or sell it in the United States. In addition, each U.S. state and territory also requires companies to register pesticides under state law before companies may distribute or sell them within those jurisdictions.

California’s DPR is responsible for overall statewide enforcement of California’s pesticide laws. DPR’s responsibilities include approving certain types of modifications to a pesticide product’s label and formulation. The California amendment and notification processes are similar, but not identical, to those followed by EPA, which recently proposed revisions to its own analogous guidance on notifications and non-notifications, as set forth under Pesticide Registration (PR) Notice 98-10 (see B&D’s January 2026 alert here).

Pesticide registrants in California must follow DPR’s specific procedures when modifying a registered product’s composition or labeling. DPR must typically review and accept those changes before companies may distribute or sell the modified product in California. This process is known as an “amendment,” and generally applies to “substantial FIFRA-related changes,” such as adding pests, crops, or methods of application to the product label.

Under certain circumstances, however, DPR allows a registrant to distribute and sell revised products via “notification” to DPR–i.e., without prior review or approval by DPR – if the revision involves non-FIFRA-elated elements or other limited changes. DPR also has the authority to designate certain limited changes as “non-notifications,” for which neither DPR notification nor advance approval is required.

DPR’s 2026 Guidance

Since its issuance in 2002, pesticide registrants in California have relied on California Notice 2002-1 as guidance for which modifications require amendment, notification, or non-notification under state law. California Notice 2026-02, issued by DPR on February 12, 2026, expressly supersedes Notice 2002-1 and is effective immediately.

Notice 2002-1 was previously organized into three sections: (i) changes allowed by notification, (ii) changes not allowed by notification (and requiring review by a DPR registration specialist), and (iii) changes allowed by non-notification. Notice 2026-02 replaces the prior “not allowed” category with a new section that describes changes that DPR allows by amendment. Other key changes introduced by Notice 2026-02 include:

Allowing non-notification, rather than requiring assignment to a DPR specialist, for:

changes to the company name, phone number, and/or address on the label,
adding, revising, or deleting multilingual language, and
changing ingredient brand names (if the ingredient product is identical and supplied by the same manufacturer).

Requiring amendment for adding uses or pests to the label (unless qualified as “not registered for use by California,” which may be added by notification).
Allowing non-notification for the following changes that formerly required notification:

Certain non-FIFRA-related label elements (such as company or product brand logos, and certain other symbols and graphics);
Certain typographical and grammatical errors;
Redesign of label format;
Package size and net contents; and
Warranty statements.

Adding a non-notification pathway for state-specific statements and qualifiers (other than those required by California), which was not addressed in Notice 2002-1.
Adding a non-notification pathway for changing non-pesticidal characteristics and claims, which was not addressed in Notice 2002-1. Examples of non-pesticidal claims include “eliminates odors,” “brightens laundry,” “non-staining,” or “Made in the USA.”

Next Steps

Because DPR’s recent notice supersedes Notice 2002-1, effective immediately, impacted parties should carefully review the notice to ensure they understand the new guidance, especially as they prepare to make changes to a product’s formulation and/or label in California. DPR will evaluate pending amendment applications under its previous 2002-1 procedures, but registrants may elect to withdraw any proposed requests that newly fall under the scope of non-notification.

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