REACH compliance: the EU chemicals regime that catches more importers than you'd think

title: "REACH compliance: the EU chemicals regime that catches more importers than you'd think" description: "REACH governs almost every chemical and many substances inside finished products sold into the EU. Importers — not just chemical companies — carry the obligations. Here's the workflow." category: "commercial-importing" estimatedReadMinutes: 9 lastUpdated: "2026-06-12"

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals) is the EU's framework regulation for chemical substances, in force since 2007 under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. It is administered by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki. The UK retained the regulation post-Brexit as UK REACH (statutory instrument 2019/758), administered by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Most non-chemical-industry importers learn about REACH the hard way: they import a consumer product (toys, electronics, textiles, leather goods, jewellery, paint) and discover their shipment is held because a market-surveillance authority has flagged a Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) above the disclosure threshold.

What REACH covers

The regulation applies in three principal layers:

1. Substances on their own — any chemical substance (single substance, defined mixture, etc.) imported into the EU or UK in volumes ≥1 tonne per year per importer requires REACH registration. Registration involves submitting a substantial technical dossier to ECHA/HSE: identity, classification and labelling, physicochemical properties, toxicology, ecotoxicology, exposure scenarios, and risk-management measures. Registration fees range from EUR 1,700 (intermediates, lowest volume) to EUR 50,000+ (high-volume substances with full dossiers).

2. Substances in mixtures — paints, adhesives, inks, lubricants, cleaning products, cosmetics ingredient blends. Each substance in the mixture is subject to REACH; the mixture itself is governed by the CLP Regulation (EC 1272/2008) for classification, labelling, and packaging.

3. Substances in articles — finished products containing chemicals. This is the layer that surprises most importers:

   • SVHC (Substance of Very High Concern, currently 235+ substances on the Candidate List as of 2026) at ≥0.1% by weight of any article: the importer must notify customers along the supply chain that the article contains the SVHC, and notify ECHA if total SVHC across all imported articles exceeds 1 tonne/year.
   • SCIP database notification (since 5 January 2021): articles containing SVHCs must be notified to ECHA's Substances of Concern In articles or complex objects (SCIP) database before being placed on the EU market.
   • Restricted substances (Annex XVII): hard prohibitions on specific substances above stated concentration limits in specific product categories. Examples: phthalates in toys, lead in jewellery, certain azo dyes in textiles, formaldehyde in furniture.
   • Authorisation requirements (Annex XIV): the most-restricted substances — chromium VI, certain phthalates, some flame retardants — cannot be used without specific authorisation from ECHA, even at low concentrations.

The Importer-of-Record obligation

Under REACH, the EU/UK importer is the legal entity responsible for REACH compliance for substances entering the customs territory — not the non-EU manufacturer or seller. Importers of articles must:

1. Determine the chemical content of the imported article. This typically requires:

   • Material declarations from the supplier (e.g. IPC-1752 for electronics, IEC 62474, REACH SVHC declaration)
   • Laboratory testing (ASTM, EN, ISO methods) on representative samples
   • Production-records traceability from supplier's raw materials

2. Identify whether any SVHC is present above 0.1% by article weight. The reference "article" is defined per ECHA's "Once an Article, Always an Article" guidance: a screw within a bicycle is an article in itself; the 0.1% threshold applies to the screw, not to the whole bicycle.

3. Notify SVHCs to customers under Article 33 if present above 0.1% by article weight.

4. Notify ECHA's SCIP database before placing the article on the market. SCIP submission requires the substance identifier, concentration range, location within the article, and safe-use instructions.

5. Verify no Annex XVII restriction is breached. The restriction list is updated multiple times per year; importers must monitor changes.

6. Verify no Annex XIV (authorisation) substance is present without a valid authorisation.

7. Ensure the supplier provides a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) in the relevant EU language(s) for any substance/mixture sold downstream.

8. Where the import volume of a substance (as a substance, in a mixture, or in an article releasing it) exceeds 1 tonne/year, the importer must register the substance with ECHA via a Technical Completeness Check (TCC) — a costly and time-intensive process typically requiring a Letter of Access from a previous registrant of the same substance.

What goes wrong at the EU border

Market-surveillance authorities (e.g. German BAuA, French DGCCRF, Dutch ILT, UK OPSS) routinely sample imported consumer products for SVHC and restricted-substance content. Common findings that trigger enforcement:

• Phthalates in toys, childcare articles, and PVC consumer goods (DEHP, DBP, BBP, DINP, DIDP, DNOP restricted under Annex XVII Entry 51; many other phthalates added to SVHC Candidate List)
• Lead in jewellery and brassware (Annex XVII Entry 63, 0.05% by weight in jewellery, plus separate consumer-goods limits)
• Cadmium in plastics, jewellery, brazing fillers (Annex XVII Entry 23)
• Nickel in skin-contact items (Annex XVII Entry 27, 0.5 μg/cm²/week migration)
• Azo dyes in textiles and leather (Annex XVII Entry 43, certain amines)
• PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS in stain-resistant and water-repellent treated articles (Annex XVII Entries 68, 53, 70)
• Formaldehyde and asbestos (multiple Annex XVII entries)

The cost of getting it wrong: market-withdrawal order, fines (typically EUR 5,000-100,000 per breach in major member states, with potential criminal liability for serious or repeated breaches), reputational damage, mandatory product recall via the EU Safety Gate (formerly RAPEX) database, and loss of customer trust at the importing brand.

The Only Representative arrangement

Non-EU manufacturers can appoint an Only Representative (OR) in the EU — a natural or legal entity that takes over the importer's REACH obligations. The OR carries the registration burden on behalf of all the EU importers of that manufacturer's substances. This is the standard arrangement for substantial Asian and US manufacturers exporting commercial volumes of chemicals or chemical-laden articles into the EU. The OR shifts compliance cost from the manufacturer's many EU buyers onto a single point of accountability.

UK REACH operates the same structure with a UK Only Representative.

SCIP database notification: the recent enforcement priority

The SCIP database, mandatory since January 2021, has been a substantial market-surveillance enforcement focus from 2023 onwards. Authorities increasingly cross-reference SCIP submissions against customs entries: if an article was demonstrably imported and the SVHC test confirms presence above 0.1%, the absence of a SCIP notification is itself an offence regardless of whether the SVHC composition is otherwise compliant.

Practical workflow for a non-EU manufacturer of a SVHC-containing article (e.g. an electronic device with a lead-based solder):

1. Supplier identifies the SVHC (lead, CAS 7439-92-1).
2. Importer or OR registers an ECHA account and SCIP login.
3. Submit SCIP notification with: SCIP UUID (unique identifier), product identifier, hierarchical structure of the article (case → motherboard → solder joint), SVHC substance name, EC/CAS number, concentration range, candidate-list date, safe-use information.
4. ECHA assigns a "primary article identifier" (PAI) returned to the submitter.
5. Each downstream customer receives the SCIP UUID along with the standard SVHC notification under Article 33.

For a complex product (a laptop, a car, a household appliance), the SCIP hierarchy can run to thousands of nested article identifiers. Major OEMs operate dedicated SCIP-submission teams and contracted SCIP-submission services.

Cosmetics — adjacent but separate

Cosmetics ingredients are governed by Cosmetics Regulation (EC) 1223/2009, not REACH directly. The CPNP (Cosmetic Products Notification Portal) is the parallel notification system for cosmetics. However, REACH substance restrictions still apply to cosmetics ingredients, and the same SVHC notification requirements apply to cosmetics-product articles (containers, applicators) that contain SVHCs above threshold.

UK REACH post-Brexit

UK REACH took effect 1 January 2021 with a transition period that has been extended several times. The current key deadlines (as of 2025 published positions) require UK-side registration for substances above the threshold; UK Notified Bodies and HSE assume the regulator role; the SCIP-equivalent UK database remains in development.

For non-UK manufacturers exporting into both EU and GB markets, the practical implication is parallel REACH compliance — EU REACH for EU placing on market plus UK REACH for GB placing on market. Northern Ireland operates EU REACH per the Windsor Framework.

REACH is the most consequential chemicals regulation in the world by economic impact, and the importer-of-record liability structure means it cannot be ignored by non-chemical-industry traders who happen to bring articles containing chemicals into the EU/UK. Build the compliance work into your sourcing process before the first shipment arrives.