Welcome to the Department of Pesticide Regulation

How to Apply for Pesticide Product Registration

Back to Pesticide Registration
Back to Registration Forms and Instructions

A pesticide product must be registered by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) before the product can be sold or offered for sale in California. Examples of pesticides include insecticides, herbicides, antimicrobials, plant growth regulators, avicides, and rodenticides. Also included are adjuvants when packaged and sold separately.

To apply for product registration, an applicant must submit:

  • Application for registration with $750 fee per product.
  • Six copies of the printed label (or printer’s proof).
  • Copy of the U.S. EPA-approved label and letter (unless the product is exempted from U.S. EPA registration). Concurrent submissions to U.S. EPA and DPR are allowed for new pesticide products containing new active ingredients, and for antimicrobial products which meet the criteria in California Notice to Registrants 2002-5. For these submissions, the U.S. EPA-approved label and letter are not available at the time of application, but must be submitted before DPR registration can be granted.
  • Data as listed below (or identification of a product(s) previously approved by DPR that would be subject to the same data requirements as the applicant’s product.) See CA Notice 2005-10, PDF (47 kb) for required formatting guidelines. Submissions that do not conform to these guidelines will be returned.

Typically, the following data are required for registration:

  • Acute toxicology on the formulated product
  • Product chemistry
  • Efficacy (product performance)
  • Phytotoxicity if used on a plant
  • Fish and wildlife, if applicable
  • Volatile emissions potential (thermogravametric analysis of data)
  • Chronic toxicology
  • Environmental fate for agricultural use products
  • Medical management, if product contains an active ingredient new to California

All data submitted to California must be formatted in the manner described in California Notice 2006-06.

If the product requires scientific evaluation of the data, the decision to register or to deny is posted for a 30-day public comment period as a Notice of Proposed and Final Decision.

After a product is registered, it is subject to an annual renewal fee and a quarterly mill assessment.

Any amendments to the product label or formulation must be submitted to DPR for approval before the product with the new label or formulation can be sold. Amendments requiring the support of scientific data must include a $100 application fee.

For a distributor registration, subregistration, or a product ownership or name change, contact your assigned regulatory scientist for information. If you are a new company and do not have an assigned regulatory scientist, contact the Ombudsman.

More detailed information about applying for registration is on the DPR application for registration.

For more information about registering a pesticide product, contact:
Richard Spas
Ombudsman
1001 I Street, P.O. Box 4015
Sacramento, CA 95812-4015
Telephone: (916) 322-9522
E-mail: rspas@cdpr.ca.gov