The UK’s Environmental Agency, which currently regulates chemical companies, power plants, and waste disposal companies, has said that it is considering prosecuting retailers if the businesses which supply them produce illegal waste.

In a report published Thursday, the agency said that it is prepared to prosecute even businesses it does not directly regulate and will hold them accountable for the environmental performance of those companies they get their products from.

These retailers would be liable even if they produce no waste themselves. In addition, the agency is looking to impose harsher sanctions on violators, even to the point of seizing equipment used in their operations and using anti-social behavior orders (Asbo), introduced in 1999 as a way to fight petty crime, to restrict businesses from engaging in one specific activity. In one 2004 case, an Asbo was used to stop a business owner from burning his customers’ waste.

Friends of the Earth has welcomed the use of Asbos in environmental enforcement. The Confederation of British Industry, the UK’s largest employers’ group, has however said that a distinction needs to be made between deliberate violators and businesses with good records on the environment that just made a mistake.

The CBI warns that the agency’s broadening of its focus beyond the pursuit of companies that flout environmental rules will cause it to stretch its resources too thinly.