A customer asks if our product contains SVHCs

REACH, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, gives substances of very high concern a special status. Article 57 sets the criteria: substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction in category 1A or 1B, substances that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic or very persistent and very bioaccumulative, and substances of equivalent concern, such as endocrine disruptors, identified case by case. Substances that meet the criteria are identified under Article 59 and placed on a candidate list, which ECHA publishes and updates on its website without delay after each decision (Article 59(1) and (10)).^[1]

Article 33 turns that list into a communication duty for anyone who supplies articles. An article is an object which during production is given a special shape, surface or design which determines its function to a greater degree than its chemical composition (Article 3(3)). A supplier of an article is any producer, importer, distributor or other actor placing it on the market (Article 3(33)). Where an article contains a Candidate List substance above 0.1 % weight by weight, the supplier must give the recipient sufficient information, available to the supplier, to allow safe use, including at least the substance name (Article 33(1)). Unlike the notification to ECHA, this duty has no tonnage threshold. Consumers can ask for the same information and must receive it free of charge within 45 days (Article 33(2)).^[1]

The threshold is calculated per article. In Case C-106/14 the Court of Justice held that, for the notification duty of an importer of a product made up of more than one article, the 0.1 % must be determined for each article (Article 7(2)), and that the Article 33 duty applies where one or more constituent articles contain the substance above that level. A sofa, a shoe or a cable assembly is therefore checked part by part.^[2]

Producers and importers can also have a duty towards ECHA. They must notify a Candidate List substance in their articles where it is present above 0.1 % w/w and in quantities totalling over one tonne per producer or importer per year (Article 7(2)), unless exposure to humans or the environment can be excluded during normal use including disposal (Article 7(3)). The notification applies six months after the substance is identified (Article 7(7)). Separately, the Waste Framework Directive requires Member States to ensure that suppliers of articles provide the Article 33(1) information to ECHA from 5 January 2021 (Directive 2008/98/EC Article 9(1)(i)), in a database ECHA maintains and opens to waste treatment operators and, on request, to consumers (Article 9(2)).^[1][3]

The communication duty does not replace the general safety duties. Everyday consumer articles without a product-specific harmonisation act remain under the General Product Safety Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, and REACH applies alongside it. Manufacturers and importers follow both: the REACH duties, and the GPSR's risk analysis, technical documentation, identification and address duties (Articles 9 and 11).^[4]