Rules for registration of phase-in substances clarified

ECHA/NR/19/37

The transitional regime for registering phase-in chemicals under REACH ended on 31 May 2018. The Commission has now clarified that certain provisions for phase-in substances will still apply until 31 December 2019.

Helsinki, 10 October 2019 – The Commission has set 31 December 2019 as the cut-off date after which some conditions stipulated in REACH for phase-in substances will no longer apply.

Companies need to pay attention to the clarifications made in the Implementing Regulation published today. After the cut-off date, companies will need to calculate their manufactured or imported volume per calendar year for each of their substances. To enable registrants to continue with their data-sharing obligations, including for newcomers and updates of the registration dossier, the Implementing Regulation recommends that registrants should use similar informal communication platforms to those used for registering phase-in substances.

From the cut-off date, companies that plan to register a substance will need to submit an inquiry to ECHA to get information on other registrants in order to begin data-sharing negotiations, and they can no longer rely on their pre-registrations.

If data-sharing negotiations started within a substance information exchange forum (SIEF), respective data-sharing disputes can be submitted according to Article 30(3) of REACH until the cut-off date. After this date, all data-sharing disputes will be handled according to Article 27.

Certain phase-in substances will continue to benefit from less stringent information requirements if they are registered at the lowest tonnage band, between 1 and 10 tonnes per year and they do not meet the criteria listed in Annex III to REACH.