REACH En-Force Project 3 focuses on imports in cooperation with the customs

The third REACH En-Force Project, initiated on a European basis, has now been implemented in several EU member states. This time, the national authorities focus on imports from outside the European Union. Apart from the control if companies have fulfilled their registration or pre-registration duties, the CLP notification is one issue that authority’s’ representatives deal with.

First experience from the market surveillance shows, that many importers are still not aware of this specific requirement at all.
Importing companies whose registration obligations will be handled by an Only Representative (OR) until 2018 (based on tonnages < 100 tons/year have to either mandate the OR for this notification or submit the information themselves. Based on the legal text, the OR is not mentioned in the CLP regulation. Therefore, it’s the importers responsibility to ensure the information is submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in time. If the information has been submitted to ECHA as part of a registration, no additional notification has to be made. For breaches of the requirements of the CLP regulation, member states had to introduce penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive. In Germany, e.g. the draft for the new Chemicals Sanctions regulation, defines an administrative fee in case that the notification has not been submitted at all, not in time, incorrect or incomplete. An administrative fee up to € 50.000 could be charged.

No Duplex-Tariffing for Scanners in Austria

Copyright levies on Scanners in Austria are based on the number of scans that can be made per minute. As of 1 April 2013, however, the duplex-function of some of the more specialized products will not be included in the tariffing anymore. This is an important success in negotiations for the Austrian Industry, significantly supported by K&L GmbH.

Duplex-Scanners are able to scan double-sided originals with one scan; they usually have two line-sensors for the front and the back of the paper. For the calculation of the copyright levies this means a doubling of the scan speed – and therefore in many cases a tripling of the levy burden. The highest tariff in Austria is at the moment nearly 400 € (per device) and, by the way, this is about 40-times more the levy in Germany for the same devices. Calculated with duplex-function, this would especially affect the powerful and expensive devices. These are mainly sold to professional users, not to private end customers. As a rule, with those professional scanners no private copies liable to compensation are made.

Against the background of these reasons, the Austrian Collecting Society for Reprography, Literar Mechana, has now revised her previous position. Even a special agreement for the calculation of scanners has been made, which does not consider duplex-function for tariffing anymore. In connection with customer projects, K&L has been working for some years towards this practical and reasonable decision, both in negotiations with Collecting Society as well as in numerous discussions with companies and the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, we notice as a positive signal that the Literar Mechana does not permanently block such proposals.

Denmark steps out the line of the European Single market concept

By publication of the announcement 1113 from 26 November last year, Denmark has made a solo attempt regarding the additional ban of phthalates in products for indoor use.

As the four banned phthalates, Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), have already been included in the Annex XIV of the REACH regulation and are restricted for the use in children’s‘ products, no further regulations have been considered as necessary so far.

This solo attempt now has a big impact of the European Single market concept and affects the free movement of goods. Products for indoor use have to comply with the substance bans in Denmark from 1 December, 2013. Electrical and electronic equipment, which is in the scope of the RoHS directive 2011/65/EU has a longer transposition period until 1 December 2014. Manufacturers of affected products have to differentiate between products for the Danish market or for the rest of the EU member states. On one hand, this can have an impact on the general reduction of phthalates in indoor use products EU-wide, on the other hand, some manufacturers, importers or distributors may retire from the Danish market.

The consultation for the inclusion of further substances in Annex II RoHS of the RoHS directive is still ongoing. These phthalates are also in discussion there.

Implementing Regulation 254/2013 amending the regulation on fees and charges pursuant to REACH published today!

Following our blog from 14 March, the changes on the fees and charges for REACH have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union today, 21 March 2013.

The main changes in brief:

–    fees for lager companies will rise, for example for the base fee for application of an authorization by ca. 6.6 % (€ 3.300) or for a joint registration in the range of 100-1000 tonnes by ca. 7 % (€ 1.651).

–    fees for Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) will be reduced, for example for the base fee for application of an authorization for a small enterprise by ca. 4 % (€ 1.015) or for a joint registration in the range of 1-10 tonnes for a small enterprise by ca. 6,25 % (€ 30).

–    Change of wording of some articles due to a stronger required legal security , e.g. for refunding in case of missed terms of payments.

The regulation will come into force tomorrow on Friday 22 March 2013 and does not apply to valid submissions peding on that day.

Adaption of regulation 340/2008 for fees according to REACH

An amendment of the fee-regulation for REACH will be expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, soon.
On basis of article 22 (2) of this regulation, a review has been carried out, taking into account the costs of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as well as the costs of member states‘ authorities.

Some articles have been amended due to a stronger required legal security, e.g. in case of missed terms of payment. The biggest, and most interested contents, however will be the adaption of Fees.

Whilst big companies will have to face higher fees for e.g. registration and updates, Small and Medium enterprises (SME) will benefit from the changes as there fees will be reduced drastically up to 47 % for Micro enterprises.

As the amendment should be valid for this year’s registration period, registrants can submit their dossier strategically based on their company size. Whilst “Large” companies should submit the dossier before publication of the amendment in order to benefit from the “old” fees, SMEs should wait until the reduced fees are in place.

New EU Regulation for Eco-Design of Lamps

A new Regulation with regard to eco-design requirements for lamps has come into force in the European Union on January 3, 2013. Regulation EU No 1194/2012 within the framework of the Eco-Design Directive 2009/125/EC refers to:

• Directional lamps
• Light-emitting diode (LED) lamps
• Equipment designed for installation between the mains and the lamps, including lamps control gear, control devices and luminaires (with some exemptions)

This is also valid when they are integrated into other products. LED modules shall be exempted from the requirements of this Regulation if they are marketed as part of luminaires that are placed on the market in less than 200 units per year.

Besides energy efficiency and functionality requirements (for example minimum requirements concerning the lamp survival factor or the number of switching cycles before failure), Annex 3 defines product information requirements. Some of them have to be displayed on the lamps itself. Other information which is of interest for the consumer has to be displayed on free access website or on the product packaging.

The requirements of EU Regulation No 1194/2012 shall apply in accordance with the following stages: Stage 1 will come into effect on September 1, 2013; stage 2 one year and stage 3 three years later.

Implementation of RoHS directive in the member states is getting off the ground…very slowly

After Estonia has published the new national RoHS legislation already in 2011, some countries like Austria, Latvia or UK have followed until the end of 2012 and adapted the new legislation in time. According to the directive 2011/65/EU, published on 1 July 2011, the transposition should have been taken place until 2 January 2013, i.e. many member states are late.

Although the requirements set by the directive are almost clear and most discussions have been handled on EU-level, there might be slight changes within the different national legislations. Especially the interpretation of the transition period for 2019 or labelling requirements show a variety amongst the legislations that have already been published.