Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, known by the acronym of its four procedures, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, is the EU’s framework law on chemicals. Its purpose, stated in Article 1, is to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment together with the free circulation of substances on the internal market. It applies to the manufacture, placing on the market and use of substances on their own, in mixtures and in articles. Article 3 defines an article as an object whose shape, surface or design determines its function more than its chemical composition. The regulation entered into force on 1 June 2007 and established the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Article 5 states the principle “no data, no market”: substances may not be manufactured or placed on the market unless they have been registered where registration is required. Title VII subjects substances of very high concern listed in Annex XIV to authorisation, and Title VIII, with Annex XVII, restricts the manufacture, placing on the market or use of substances that present an unacceptable risk, including in articles, for example lead, cadmium, nickel and certain phthalates in consumer products (Article 67).
For manufacturers and importers of articles the direct obligations are Article 7, which requires registration of substances intended to be released from articles and notification to ECHA of substances of very high concern present above 0.1 % weight by weight and one tonne per year, Article 33, which requires suppliers to inform recipients, and consumers on request within 45 days, of such substances above 0.1 %, and compliance with every Annex XVII entry that applies to the product. Since 5 January 2021 the same suppliers must also notify those articles to ECHA’s SCIP database under Article 9(1)(i) of the Waste Framework Directive; the REACH communication duty and the SCIP notification are separate obligations and both apply above 0.1 % weight by weight. Sector acts such as the Toy Safety, Batteries and Packaging Regulations refer back to REACH for their chemical requirements.