Questions and answers for companies

The UKs withdrawal from the EU

CLP

Does my United Kingdom-based company still need to classify and label our products according to the EU’s CLP Regulation?

No, your company is subject to the laws applied in the United Kingdom, except for Northern Ireland.

Should your company be exporting your products to the EU/EEA, you need to do that via an importer established in Northern Ireland or the EU/EEA, who has an obligation to classify and label your products according to the provisions of the CLP Regulation. You need to keep yourself informed of any Adaptation to Technical Progress (ATP) by which the European Commission will be updating specific classification and labelling obligations.

In Northern Ireland, the CLP Regulation continues to apply. This means that companies based in Northern Ireland need to comply with the CLP Regulation. Please refer to Q&A 1701 for further details.

Is my United Kingdom-based company obliged to apply the harmonised classification for substances as listed in Annex VI to the CLP Regulation?

No, you are no longer subject to the provisions of the CLP Regulation.

In Northern Ireland, the CLP Regulation continues to apply. This means that companies based in Northern Ireland need to comply with the CLP Regulation. Please refer to Q&A 1701 for further details.

Is my United Kingdom-based company obliged to seek agreement on the classification of the substances we manufacture in alignment with manufacturers and importers of the same substance within the EU/EEA?

No, you are no longer subject to the provisions of the CLP Regulation and thus don’t have such an obligation.

In Northern Ireland, the CLP Regulation continues to apply. This means that companies based in Northern Ireland need to comply with the CLP Regulation. Please refer to Q&A 1701 for further details.

Is my United Kingdom-based company obliged to notify the classification of substances in the C&L Inventory?

No, this obligation no longer applies to you. If you export substances into the EU/EEA, your EU/EEA-based importer has the obligation to submit the C&L notifications to ECHA. This applies to substances exported as such or in mixtures above the concentration limits triggering classification. Furthermore, the packaging and labelling of any mixture that you export to the EU will need to comply with the provisions of the CLP Regulation. 

In Northern Ireland, the CLP Regulation continues to apply. This means that companies based in Northern Ireland need to comply with the CLP Regulation. Please refer to Q&A 1701 for further details.

How is the information that my United Kingdom-based company notified to ECHA used after the end of the transition period?

The information remains available under the conditions of the legal notice that ECHA has published along with the inventory. However, you can no longer modify it via your REACH-IT account. 

In Northern Ireland, the CLP Regulation continues to apply. This therefore means no changes for Northern Ireland-based companies. Please refer to Q&A 1701 for further details.

When exporting to the United Kingdom, is my EU/EEA-based company required to include in the labels of our products the pictograms and other label elements that the CLP Regulation prescribes?

The label elements that are based on the United Nations’ Global Harmonised System (GHS) will remain obligatory as the United Kingdom will still implement the GHS.

Thus, for example, the pictograms will be valid within the United Kingdom. More information is available here.

When our EU/EEA-based company exports to the United Kingdom, do the labels affixed to our products need to be in the English language as required by the CLP Regulation?

The legal language requirements depend on the United Kingdom legislation. In practice, it is safe to assume a need to continue labelling your product in the English language as the official language of the United Kingdom, based on the information and the format prescribed by the CLP Regulation. More information is available here.

I am an EU/EEA-based company importing mixtures from the United Kingdom supplier. Do I have obligations under Article 45 and Annex VIII (poison centre notifications)? Can I consider my obligations fulfilled by a notification already submitted by my United Kingdom supplier?

From 1 January 2021, EU/EEA companies importing hazardous mixtures from the United Kingdom, except from Northern Ireland, have become duty holders under Article 45. Therefore, if you place hazardous mixtures covered by the scope of Article 45 on the EU/EEA market that are supplied by a United Kingdom company you have the obligation to notify to the relevant appointed body(ies) and include the UFI on the label before placing the mixture on the EU/EEA market. Please note that import is considered as placing on the market. More information about which mixtures are in the scope of Article 45 is available on the Guidance on Annex VIII

A notification already made by your United Kingdom supplier before the end of the transition period does not relieve you from your obligations. Each duty holder is required to submit the information according to Annex VIII individually. This is not the case if your supplier is located in Northern Ireland, where the CLP still applies (see Q&A 1701). In this case, if you only act as distributor of the mixture, you do not have direct obligations under Article 45 (please, see the Guidance on Annex VIII for more information on roles and obligations).

Can I transfer my poison centres notifications to an EU/EEA-based legal entity?
No, such functionality does not exist for poison centre notifications. In case of a change of legal entity, the new legal entity needs to submit a new poison centre notification. Please, note that as long as the mixture composition does not change, the same UFI may be used by different legal entities.
What happens to the Annex VIII data submitted via the ECHA Submission portal by United Kingdom-based companies before 1 January 2021?

Annex VIII data submitted before 1 January 2021 via the Submission portal remain in the data base and will not be deleted. These are available for the relevant appointed bodies of the EU/EEA Member States which have got access to the PCN service.

United Kingdom authorities will not get access to the database. Therefore, any notification to the UK should be made through their national notification channels.

How should substances and mixtures be labelled in order to be CLP-compliant after 1 January 2021 if the label contains the contact details of a United Kingdom -based supplier?

A label without contact details of an EU legal entity is not compliant with CLP. According to Article 17(1)a, a substance or mixture classified as hazardous and contained in packaging must bear a label including the name, address, and telephone number of the supplier(s). By definition, a ‘supplier’ means any manufacturer, importer, downstream user or distributor placing on the market a substance, on its own or in a mixture, or a mixture, and each of these entities is defined as a natural or legal person established within the Community (Article 2 CLP). 

Therefore, the required change of the contact details from a United Kingdom-based to an EU/EEA-based supplier is not considered as an update of the label (according to Article 30 CLP), but as a pre-requisite for the placing of substances and mixtures on the EU/EEA-market. This applies through the entire supply chain.

In practice, and in line with provision TBT.8 on marking and labelling in the Trade And Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and The United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Northern Ireland (as published on 31 Dec 2020), it is acceptable to use a sticker with the EU supplier’s details to cover those of the non-EU supplier. Before labels are updated due to other reasons, each supplier in the supply chain needs to add such stickers on the products they supply, with their own or their supplier’s contact details.

It can also be noted that labelling, including supplementary labelling or corrections to labelling, may take place in customs warehouses or other designated areas in the country of import as an alternative to labelling in the country of origin, unless such labelling is required to be carried out by approved persons for reasons of public health or safety.

For information on whether the non-EU supplier's contact details can be included in the label, see Q&A 1808.