Is your dispute pending? You can still submit a dossier by 31 May

ECHA/NR/18/18

If you have recently filed a data-sharing dispute to ECHA, it may be that the decision is not finalised before the 31 May 2018 registration deadline. This would mean that you are not able to submit a complete registration in time. However, you can still make a submission so that you can continue on the market until the Agency has assessed your case.

Helsinki, 23 March 2018 – REACH requires registrants to make every effort to agree on data sharing and joint submission. But if the negotiations fail, you can file a dispute to ECHA. ECHA will assess your case and see whether you and your counterparts have made every effort to reach a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory agreement.

If you have recently filed a dispute to ECHA, your dispute decision might still be pending on 31 May, the deadline for registering small-volume chemicals. This means that you may not be able to register by the deadline, as you need ECHA’s dispute decision to complete your dossier and submit it. If you find yourself in this situation, ECHA will contact you with instructions on how to make a submission before 31 May, so that you can continue your business operations until you have a decision.

If the final dispute decision is in your favour, ECHA will inform you of this and you can update your submission to make it complete. If the decision is not in your favour, ECHA will reject the submission and you will have to successfully submit a new registration dossier before continuing or taking up manufacture or import of your substance in quantities above one tonne per year.

Here are some of our tips for successful data-sharing negotiations:

• Discuss substance sameness first – it is the starting point for your data-sharing negotiations and for agreeing on the scope of the joint registration.
• Any registrant that has data – not just the lead registrant – is obligated to share it within the SIEF.
• Under certain conditions laid down in REACH, you can submit your own data and opt out of some parts or all of the jointly submitted information. If you do this, keep in mind that the other registrants may also want to include this additional data in the joint dossier, and it is their right to ask you to share it with them.
• You have the right to receive a breakdown or itemisation of costs to understand how the costs for data have been calculated.
• SIEF participants need to agree on a reimbursement mechanism and on how to share potential future costs, especially if new data is needed in response to an evaluation decision.
• Consult the negotiation advice on ECHA’s website and use the templates available.