News
News
Be aware of false invitations - check that the lead registrant is credible
ECHA/NA/16/06
ECHA has received reports of companies falsely claiming to be lead registrants for certain substances. Potential registrants should, therefore, not accept invitations to prepare a joint registration from individual companies who are not following the rules of the REACH Regulation.
Helsinki, 22 February 2016 – Some companies have been claiming to be the lead registrant in situations where their nomination has not been agreed between the co-registrants, where another lead registrant has already been selected or even where a joint REACH registration has been already submitted to ECHA. If you are approached by such a company, you should not accept their offer to prepare a joint registration, but to look for the real lead and other registrants of your substance.
The starting point for finding your co-registrants is to check whether your substance has already been registered through the Information on chemicals section on ECHA's website. If a candidate lead registrant contacts you before you have identified your co-registrants, follow this advice to check their validity:
- Ask for details on the identity of the substance to establish substance sameness.
- Ask for evidence that they have the consent of the co-registrants to act as a lead registrant.
- Ask for evidence that they have sufficient information for a compliant dossier.
Offers from leads that are not respecting the REACH rules might seem less costly. However, in many cases, the quality of the dossier might not be adequate, which may create serious legal consequences and additional costs to all registrants.
If your company is experiencing difficulties in verifying the validity of the lead registrant, we encourage you to contact the ECHA Helpdesk for further advice and possible intervention.
Background
‘One substance, one registration' is one of the core principles of REACH. Companies registering the same substance must work together: establish substance sameness, share scientific data and costs, and submit a joint registration. Co-registrants must make every effort to make sure that the costs for joint registration are shared in a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory way.
The main task of the lead registrant is to submit the joint registration dossier containing all information needed for a compliant substance registration. The lead can only act on agreement of all the other registrants. The lead registration dossier has to be submitted before the company-specific member dossiers can be accepted. The creation and sharing of data and its costs are not solely the responsibility of the lead but a joint responsibility of all registrants of the same substance.