Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a decisive role in the competitiveness and dynamism of the European economy. To help them to realize their growth potential, the EU is working towards promoting entrepreneurship and creating a friendlier business environment for small businesses.

SMEs not familiar with REACH can find out their obligations using the Navigator Tool where they will also find Guidance Documents in 22 EU languages. Soon, auto fill-in forms will enable SMEs to fill in REACH-IT web forms with one click. SMEs can also get assistance on REACH and CLP through the national helpdesks that operate in all the Member States.

Finally, SMEs benefit from a fee reduction in both the REACH and CLP regulations.  

Is your company an SME?

Make sure that you are an SME before declaring it in REACH-IT. Only Representatives (OR) should make sure that your registration is in line with the size of the company you represent.

Definition of SMEs

Enterprises qualify as micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) if they fulfill the criteria laid down in the European Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC which are summarized in the table below.  It provides the exact information to be taken into account when calculating the size of an enterprise. Specifically, Article 2 of the Annex determines the staff headcount and the financial ceilings per category.

 

Enterprise category

 

Headcount

 

Turnover or Balance sheet total

medium-sized

< 250

≤ € 50 million

≤ € 43 million

small

< 50

≤ € 10 million

≤ € 10 million

micro

< 10

≤ € 2 million

≤ € 2 million

 

Please note that also ownership, voting rights and relationships with other companies contribute to determining a company size.

Here is a practical tool to help you to determine if your company is an SME:

Electronic SME test

 

SME verification

To ensure fair competition and to assure its own resources, ECHA has the responsibility to check the size of the companies who are eligible for REACH and CLP rebates. ECHA will collect an administrative charge from any registrant who wrongly claimed to be entitled to a fee reduction or a fee waiver. If following an inquiry ECHA concludes that the size of a company is larger than what it claimed when registering under REACH, the company will not only have to pay the difference in registration fee but also an administrative charge which has been defined in the Management Board decision MB/D/29/2010 [PDF].

Instructions to companies for correcting the SME status

A. If you realise that you have incorrectly indicated your company as an SME and you have not yet received the registration number, please do the following:

  1. Inform ECHA by filling in the 'Helpdesk contact form' and choose ‘Submission to ECHA via REACH-IT" (radio button at step 2) indicating the correct submission number.
  2. Change your status in REACH-IT before submitting your next registration(s).
  3. Pay the new invoice(s) corresponding to your revised company size that will be sent by ECHA.

B. If you realise that you have incorrectly indicated your company as an SME and you have already received the registration number, please do the following:

  1. Inform ECHA by filling in the 'Helpdesk contact form' and choose ‘Submission to ECHA via REACH-IT" (radio button at step 2) indicating the correct submission number.
  2. Change your status in REACH-IT before submitting your next registration(s).
  3. Pay the invoice(s) for the additional fee corresponding to your revised company size that will be sent by ECHA.
  4. If the submission date is after 01.12.2010, you will also receive an invoice for an administrative charge. However, please note that once ECHA has contacted you in writing to verify whether your company is an SME or not, an administrative charge cannot be avoided even if you had already received a registration number before 1 December 2010.

Help desk contact form

 

C. If you realise that you have incorrectly indicated your company as an SME and you have not done any registrations or notifications, please do the following:

  1. Change your status in REACH-IT before submitting your registration(s).

 

 

See also