General recommendations

Keep your registrations up to date and proactively improve your data by following these general recommendations.

Monitor changes and update by the deadlines

You are responsible for keeping your registration up to date.
Submit an update if there are changes in any of the following topics:
- your role (manufacturer, importer or a producer of articles), identity (company name) or contact details;
- the composition of your substance;
- the actual manufactured or imported tonnage so that it no longer corresponds with the information in your registration;
- new identified uses or new uses advised against for your substance;
- new information on the hazards or risks of your substance to human health or the environment that affects the safety data sheet or the chemical safety report;
- the classification and labelling of your substance;
- data gaps for any endpoint listed in Annexes IX and X (in this case, you must first explore all the possibilities of using existing information, adaptations and alternative methods to meet the information requirements, and then, if overall the available data is not sufficient to comply with the requirements, you must submit a testing proposal);
- the access granted to information in the registration.
Deadlines for updates are:
- three months for administrative updates, including change in registrants’ status or identity;
- three months for reporting a change in substance composition;
- three months for an upgrade of tonnage band, including cease of manufacture or import;
- six, nine or 12 months for more complex updates, including a change of classification and labelling of a substance without a harmonised classification, changes in the chemical safety report or guidance on safe use.
Make sure you have monitoring systems in place to easily identify the changes that require updates in your registration.
Keep records of your updates to show national enforcement authorities that the necessary updates were done in time for all your substances.

Follow up the regulatory status of your substance

Monitor the regulatory status of your substance continually. Depending on the adopted regulatory risk management actions, the use of your substance may be restricted, or you may need to apply for an authorisation to continue its use. Your substance may also be included in Annex VI to CLP for harmonised classification and labelling, resulting in new obligations.
The public activities coordination tool (PACT) gives an overview of authorities’ activities under REACH and CLP on specific substances, covering data generation and assessment, assessment of regulatory needs and regulatory risk management. Use it to keep yourself up to date on the status of your substance.

Inform ECHA about cease of manufacture or import

When you decide to cease the manufacture or import of your substance, you must notify ECHA in REACH-IT within three months of the date of cessation.
If you inform ECHA of a cease of manufacture or import after receiving a draft evaluation decision but before the decision is adopted, your registration will be revoked and will no longer be valid. Consequently, you will not receive the adopted decision, while the decision-making process will continue for other addressees of the draft decision (where applicable). Any other decisions adopted before the cease of manufacture are still valid and requests must be fulfilled.

Consider whether a testing proposal is needed before testing

Generate new data with care – explore all the possibilities of using existing information, adaptations and alternative methods to meet the information requirements.
If you need to perform a new test to fulfil standard information requirements listed in Annexes IX or X to REACH, you must first submit a testing proposal:
- submit a testing proposal for a given endpoint in the relevant IUCLID section of the lead or opt-out dossier;
- record the testing proposal properly: under the relevant endpoint study record in IUCLID, select ‘Experimental study planned’ from the ‘Type of information’ drop-down list;
- include your considerations for alternative methods if testing on vertebrate animals is proposed;
- identify and select the test material carefully and ensure that it is representative also for other members of the joint submission;
- include the OECD/EU method and the study design you propose to follow for the test you need to conduct.
If you propose to conduct a test with another substance than the registered one, provide a comprehensive, scientifically sound and transparent justification. ECHA’s Read-across Assessment Framework (RAAF) can support you to explaining why you are applying this category or read-across approach to the registered substance and the endpoint in question.

Demonstrate the relevance of your test material

Report the constituent identities and their concentration values for each test material used to generate your data for studies already conducted as well as for proposed testing.
Ensure that the test material composition is within the boundaries of the substance identity profile reported in the lead registrant dossier, and relevant to all members of the joint jubmission.
Proactively correct any substance identification mistakes.

Use and report good laboratory practice

All new toxicological and eco-toxicological tests must be carried out following the principles of good laboratory practice (GLP).
For physicochemical testing, tests performed according to the GLP standard are recommended, but not mandatory.
For results of a toxicological or an eco-toxicological study, identify the test facility by providing the complete name and address of the facility.
If parts of a study were not conducted in line with the GLP principles, specify this in the GLP compliance section in IUCLID.
Check Annex XI, Section 1.1.2 to REACH to see the conditions under which you can use existing experiments not carried out according to GLP to fulfil your information requirements.

Use appropriate test guidelines

You need to conduct all tests in accordance with recognised test methods, following either the EU Test Method Regulation or the OECD test guidelines. Choose the most recently published test guideline.
Regarding in vitro tests, to assess properties of your substance you may use the positive results obtained through test methods that have not been formally validated yet but meet the pre-validation criteria (as outlined in Annex XI, 1.4).

Be accurate about the reported data

Prepare a robust study summary including sufficient information to enable ECHA to conduct an independent assessment.
If you want to adapt standard testing or replace the experimental value with a prediction, you need to provide the legal basis for the adaptation and the information used to fulfil the information requirement, e.g. a justification document and relevant studies.

Report nanoforms of substances

Use ECHA guidance to learn how to address nanoforms when generating or collecting information.
Document the nanoforms of the substance you intend to register and the nanoforms of the substance your data refers to in the reporting fields available in the composition records of IUCLID.
If you register a set of similar nanoforms, you need to provide:
- clearly defined boundaries for the parameters specified in REACH Annex VI points 2.4.2 to 2.4.5; and
- a justification that hazard, exposure and risk assessment of the nanoforms in the set can be performed jointly, using a text template available in Section 1.2 of IUCLID.

Check REACH-IT regularly and communicate

Set up an email alert to receive a notification each time you get a new message in your REACH-IT account.
Log into REACH-IT regularly to check the message box.
Identify who in your company is responsible for making these regular checks and keep their contact details up to date.
Communicate with your co-registrants, your supply chain, and your industry sector associations.