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Final weeks before the 2013 registration deadline

Final weeks before the 2013 registration deadline

ECHA/NA/13/17

ECHA provides final advice for companies registering by the registration deadline of 31 May 2013.

Helsinki, 14 May 2013 – With only a few weeks to go until the second REACH deadline, all registrants should be making the final arrangements for the submission of their dossier. At this stage, lead and member registrants should have already decided how to meet the relevant information requirements and the compensation for sharing data and related costs, allowing the lead to provide the members with the corresponding REACH-IT joint submission token.

The lead registrants of the SIEF are encouraged to submit their lead dossier as soon as possible to allow member registrants time to submit their own dossiers - members can only submit their own dossiers when the lead registrant has provided the members with the REACH-IT joint submission token and the lead dossier has passed the ‘business rules' step in REACH-IT.

Registrants who still have difficulties in meeting certain registration requirements can contact the ECHA Helpdesk, and ECHA will provide a response as soon as possible. Registrants that have an exceptional situation regarding their ability to register (e.g. scientific tests are still being conducted), and who potentially qualify for one of the Directors' Contact Group (DCG) exceptions, should urgently submit a request through the ECHA Helpdesk contact form and provide a justification of their situation. They will get their response within five working days.

If there are data sharing disputes, ECHA has provisions in place to assist registrants. However, registrants are reminded that a dispute should be submitted only as a last resort. Further information and webforms to submit a dispute are available on ECHA's website.

Key advice for dossier submission

To successfully submit a dossier, pay attention to the following:

  • Log in to your REACH-IT account to ensure that the login credentials are up to date and that your contact information is correct. Make sure that the telephone numbers, email addresses and contact persons identified in REACH-IT are all up to date. Check also that your billing information (billing address, VAT number) is correct. If your login credentials have been lost, consult ECHA's Factsheet ‘Avoid blocking your REACH-IT account' to recover them. If you cannot access your REACH-IT account, contact the ECHA Helpdesk.
  • Check the correct company size in your REACH-IT account. Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC is the sole basis for determining the qualification as micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME). Wrongly claiming to be an SME can be costly.
  • Take care that your substance identity is clear. The Agency is screening the substance identity of all registrations it receives for the 2013 deadline and therefore recommends that registrants use the Dossier Quality Assistant to check their substance identity information before submitting their dossier.
  • Prepare the dossier in IUCLID, making use of the supporting IT tools:
    • The TCC plug-in shows if your dossier and substance dataset are complete and checks the majority of the business rules;
    • The Dossier Quality Assistant helps detect potential inconsistencies in your dossier;
    • The Fee calculation plug-in displays the expected registration fee and any fees related to confidentiality claims; and
    • The Dissemination plug-in reveals which parts of the dossier will be made publicly available on ECHA's website.

To register substances successfully you must pass the ‘business rules' by the end of the day on 31 May 2013. Therefore, do not leave your registration to the last minute. It is also recommended that you inform your accounting department in advance so that they are ready to pay the registration fee in time.

ECHA will keep REACH-IT open non-stop from Monday 20 May 10:00 (EET) until 1 June 02:00 (EET) to ensure that companies are able to submit their registration dossiers for the 31 May deadline.

ECHA offers direct support

In case you experience technical difficulties when submitting your dossier, you are encouraged to contact our Helpdesk as soon as possible. Additionally, ECHA will monitor the submissions and will be ready to contact companies directly and provide help with specific submission issues. Therefore, it is important that your contact information is up to date in REACH-IT.

If you fail the technical completeness check (TCC) undertaken by ECHA, you will receive a letter in your REACH-IT account. The letter will include instructions on how to proceed, including a timeframe to resubmit your dossier (usually four months). This means that, in such cases, the resubmission can happen after 1 June 2013. Should your registration fail the TCC for a second time, it will be rejected.