Strategic TFA Litigation Increases PFAS Pressure in Germany

According to recent reports, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (“DUH”), one of Germany’s best-known environmental NGOs, has brought multiple actions challenging water-management measures in several German river-basin districts. DUH claims that the competent German state authorities have failed to impose sufficiently robust controls to prevent or reduce inputs of trifluoroacetic acid (“TFA”) into groundwater and surface water. According to DUH, the cases target what it sees as gaps in the current regulatory response to TFA-forming pesticides, fluorinated gases, and industrial discharges.

The new actions build on an expanding line of PFAS- and TFA-related cases in Germany. They follow earlier proceedings in Lower Saxony before that state’s Higher Administrative Court concerning a flufenacet-containing plant protection product, as well as other DUH proceedings concerning TFA-forming plant protection products. They also sit alongside model actions filed by DUH in October 2025 seeking revocation of authorizations for several plant protection products, each alleged to generate TFA. The clear trajectory is that claimants are using multiple procedural routes — including challenges to water-planning instruments and to product authorizations — to press for tighter controls on TFA sources.

This litigation trend is unlikely to abate. The German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, “UBA”) has reported that TFA is detectable at a substantial majority of monitored groundwater sites across Germany. The European Food Safety Authority (“EFSA”) is reviewing TFA reference values, and EFSA and the European Chemicals Agency have been tasked with assessing TFA’s environmental fate in soil and water. The European Commission has likewise identified TFA as a multi-source substance requiring closer evaluation. These developments may create a backdrop for further challenges by NGOs and potentially for more restrictive action by authorities.