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Pre-register to benefit from extended deadlines
REACH, the new EU chemicals regulation, requires that chemical substances on their own, in preparations and those which are intentionally released from articles have to be registered to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The regulation applies to substances manufactured in, or imported to the EU in annual quantities of 1 tonne or more per company, unless the regulation indicates otherwise.
The obligation to register applies from 1 June 2008. The chemicals currently on the EU market which meet the definition of phase-in substances should be pre-registered between 1 June and 1 December 2008. Companies who pre-register their substances can benefit from extended registration deadlines. The deadline depends on the tonnage band and the hazardous properties of the substance. The staggered deadlines are:
- 30 November 2010,
- 31 May 2013 or
- 31 May 2018
Late pre-registration
If your company starts manufacturing or importing 1 tonne or more of a chemical substance per year after 1 December 2008 you can benefit from late pre-registration provisions.
Late pre-registration does not apply to companies that failed to meet the pre-registration deadline of 1 December 2008 for their substances. These companies cannot continue producing or importing the substances until they have submitted a full registration dossier.
Background information and guidance is available on the Pre-registration page in the REACH-IT section.
REACH-IT is enabled for submission of late pre-registrations.
From an inventory to a registration
The process from knowing your REACH roles and substances to registration has several steps. The roles are explained in the Actors section of the About REACH web page on the Guidance website. The seven steps are presented in the graph below. Each of the steps has its own web page. The preparation, company account creation and submission of a pre-registration file steps can be carried out by different methods. All the potential options are explained first on the generic page for the step. More details are given on the option specific page.
These pre-registration pages provide an overview and a step-wise guide how to prepare and submit a pre-registration to ECHA. They also explain briefly what companies need to do after they have submitted a pre-registration. The pages have links to relevant support material, namely General information & training material, Guidance, IT tools and/or most relevant parts of EU Legislation.
The buttons above the "Further information"-heading will allow you to navigate easily from one step to another.
Further information
Documents and web pages below help you to understand the topics covered and/or provide access to relevant tools. The 
-icon indicates that the linked material is available only in English.
General information & training material
- REACH - The new EU chemicals legislation leaflet gives an overview of the REACH requirements to EU companies.
- Pre-registration Q&A (
) is a compilation of general, IUCLID 5 and REACH-IT related questions and answers.
- About REACH web pages provide a general overview of the regulation, who is it will impact and how companies can fulfill their duties.
- EINECS number (European Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances) is a registry number given to each chemical substance commercially available in the European Union between 1 January 1971 and 18 September 1981. The inventory was created by Directive 67/548/EEC concerning the labeling of dangerous substances
- CAS number is a unique numeric identifier designated to only one substance. A number is assigned to a substance when it enters the CAS registry database.
Guidance
- Guidance on data sharing document describes data sharing mechanisms for phase-in and non phase-in substances under REACH:
- Glossary provides a listing and explanation of the key terms used in the REACH guidance.
- Guidance website is a single point of access to general and detailed technical guidance on REACH.
IT Tools
- REACH IT Portal is the tool to be used for submitting pre-registration files and other data to ECHA.
- IUCLID 5 website is the access point to download the software. It also contains all support documents, training material and access to IUCLID 5 Service Desk.
- IUCLID 5 leaflet () gives an overview of the IUCLID 5 IT tool.
Legislation
- REACH Regulation
- Art. 3.1 - Definition, chemical substance
- Art. 3.3 - Article
- Art. 3.20 - Definitions - phase-in substance
- Art. 7 - Registration and notification of substances in articles
- Art. 5 - No data no market
- Art. 23 - Specific provisions for phase in substances
- Art. 28 - Duty to pre-register for phase-in substances