News
News
Guidance on substances in articles updated
ECHA/NI/15/41
Following the judgement of the Court of Justice, ECHA has published a quick update to its Guidance on requirements for substances in articles. A more comprehensive update will follow in 2016.
Helsinki, 17 December 2015 - Following the judgement of the Court of Justice of 10 September 2015 in case C-106/14, ECHA has now updated its guidance on requirements for substances in articles. This quick update corrects the parts of the guidance with references to the 0.1% limit that are no longer consistent with the conclusions of the court's judgement.
The court's judgement clarified the scope of the notification and communication obligations of companies in relation to articles containing substances included in the Candidate List of substances of very high concern in a concentration above 0.1% weight by weight. According to the ruling, the legal obligations also apply to articles that are present in complex products (i.e. products composed of several articles) as long as these articles keep a special shape, surface or design or as long as they do not become waste.
A more comprehensive update of the guidance will follow in 2016. It is foreseen to include a general update and re-structuring of the document, new examples that are aligned with the court's judgement and a review of the current examples against the experience gained and questions received by ECHA since the guidance was first published. This update will be subject to the normal three-step guidance consultation process, which will include a consultation with ECHA's accredited stakeholders.