Concerning REACH Violations: ECHA Exposes Import Compliance Shortfalls

A compliance sweep of imported substances and products - the latest in a series of regular European Union (EU)-wide enforcement checks conducted since 2016 - revealed a surge in violations of REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals) regulations in 2024 across a wide range of items in the EU, from industrial mixtures to consumer goods like jewelry and toys. The concerns of the REACH-En-Force-12 (REF-12) project, coordinated by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and executed by the national member state enforcement authorities, were highlighted during ECHA's latest webinar and in the accompanying report recently released by the agency.

Henrik Hedlund, chair of ECHA's Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement and its REF-12 working group reported a striking disparity: 7% of registrations of imported substances on their own are non-compliant, compared with 32% of substances in mixtures - a distinction that appears to confuse or evade many importers.