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Enforcement project to check compliance with the obligations of substances in articles

ECHA/NI/17/40

The aim of the pilot project is to determine the level and reasons for non-compliance and to raise awareness of the obligations. In particular, suppliers of consumer articles will be targeted.

Helsinki, 20 November 2017 – The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement has started the pilot project to verify compliance with the notification and communication obligations of substances in articles in REACH. The project is being launched as a result of national enforcement actions, reports from authorities or NGOs, and a low number of notifications being made to ECHA. They all indicate that the obligations of industry would not be adequately met.

The pilot project aims to:

  • check compliance of producers, importers and suppliers of articles with their obligations (Articles 7 and 33 of the REACH Regulation);
  • contribute to raising awareness and understanding of the legal obligations and in turn raise the level of compliance among duty holders;
  • build a better picture of the actual level of compliance by suppliers of articles;
  • identify the reasons for non-compliance and whether further actions are required (e.g. support to duty holders) by ECHA, the Commission and/or competent authorities of the Member States; and
  • gather experience and establish enforcement methods for potentially checking these obligations on a larger scale in the future.


The target groups for inspection are article distributors and producers or importers of articles. Articles that are likely to contain Candidate List substances to which consumers may be exposed are a particular focus point. Examples of consumer articles that may be inspected are electrical products, building materials and interior articles.

Specific substances that would be targeted in the project include:

  • brominated flame retardants;
  • phosphorous flame retardants;
  • short-chain chloroparaffins;
  • phthalates;
  • aprotic polar solvents;
  • perfluorinated substances; and 
  • phenolic benzotriazoles.


The operational phase of the project started in October 2017 and will run until the end of June 2018. A report of the results is expected by the end of November 2018.

ECHA updated its REACH guidance on requirements for substances in articles and also held a webinar for industry on the communication and notification obligations that EU importers, producers and suppliers of articles need to comply with in case their articles contain Candidate List substances. The links to the guidance and the webinar recordings and presentations are available below.