Companies who manufacture and/or import chemical substances should review the revised ‘Guidance on registration’. Most, if not all, manufacturing companies will have an obligation as a downstream user under REACH; it is recommended you take the time to examine this important document, downloadable from this page.
The guides outline how compliance with the EU's Reach chemical regulation (REACH) can be achieved.
Guidance on registration
The aim of this guidance is to assist industry in determining which tasks and obligations have to be complied with to fulfill their registration requirements under REACH. The document guides potential registrants to answer the following questions:
• Who has registration obligations?
• Which substances are within the scope of REACH in general and registration in particular?
• When to pre-register and when to submit an inquiry?
• What is the registration dossier?
• How to prepare the registration dossier and submit it to the Agency?
• When does a registration dossier have to be submitted to the Agency?
• What does it mean to submit jointly with other registrants of the same substance?
• What are registrants' obligations regarding data sharing?
• When and how to update the registration dossier?
• What is the registration fee?
• What are the duties of the Agency once the registration dossier is submitted?
The guidance is based on descriptions of obligations supplemented by explanations and practical advice, which whenever possible are illustrated by examples. Throughout the text explanations of the REACH process are offered, providing references to relevant guidance documents and other useful tools. A copy of this guidance is available from the download section of this webpage.
Guidance for downstream users
The guidance is intended for downstream users of chemical substances. A downstream user is someone who uses a substance, either on its own or in a preparation, in the course of his industrial or professional activities. Many different types of companies can be downstream users, including formulators of preparations, producers of articles, craftsmen, workshops and service providers or refillers.
The guidance is also aimed at other actors in the supply chain, who are not downstream users or manufacturers and importers, but still have obligations under REACH. This includes distributors, retailers and storage providers.
The guidance covers the full range of obligations that you may face under REACH as a downstream user and the different circumstances that you may encounter. A copy is available from the download section of this webpage.