U.S. EPA issued an FOV to Aexcel on March 31, 2004, citing them for violations of the Architectural Coatings Standards at 40 C.F.R. Part 59, Subpart D. Specifically, the alleged violations included exceeding the VOC content limits for subject coatings (which also exceeded the tonnage exemption limit) without paying exceedance fees and failure to provide the VOC content on its containers of architectural coatings.
In April 2004, Aexcel provided U.S. EPA with updated labels, which were required for compliance. In June 2004, Aexcel discontinued production of architectural coatings in violation of the VOC content limits. As a SEP, Aexcel agreed to reformulate 34 of its architectural coatings products to achieve at least a 25,127 lb/yr reduction in VOCs, resulting in a penalty of $20,000.