CURRENT THRESHOLD FOR SVHC AND HOW IT IS APPLIED.

Latest Developments

On the 10th of September 2015 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that the 0.1% threshold for notifying SVHCs in articles applies to “each of the articles incorporated as a component of a complex product” rather than to the entire product. However the European retailers trade body Euro Commerce called for a moratorium on the enforcement of last week’s court ruling on the notification of SVHCs in products.

Background

In April 2011 ECHA published an updated guidance on substances in Article 1. According to the guidance the EU member states currently hold different point of views on the interpretation on how to apply the 0.1% (w/w) threshold of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) on a complex article consisting of several materials.

One opinion is based on ECHA guidance which is supported by the majority of Member States for example the UK and Ireland.

● Based on the Guidance the “production step” of an article defined in Article 3(3) of the REACH Regulation can also be understood to include the assembly of the components (which can themselves be different materials) of a complex article (e.g. a laptop). The 0.1% threshold has to be applied on the entire product as supplied rather than all the individual components.

● In the Guidance the interpretation of a set of objects has also been introduced which are merely collected together to be supplied and not having a particular production step. Therefore the 0.1% threshold of SVHC should be applied to every single part in the set. The calculation of SVHC content should be carried out separately for each part.

Another opinion is proposed by six EU Member States including Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, and Norway.

As mentioned in the Guidance there were dissenting views in several countries on the interpretation on how to apply the 0.1% threshold to an product consisting of several components. In October 2010 on behalf of the six Member States above Denmark presented a paper called “Once an article, always an article” which means the 0.1% threshold has to be applied on each object of a complex article which fulfils the definition independent of its size and assembly steps by manufacturers or consumers respectively.

Influence on Investigation Methods

Most products are assembled from some or many component parts. Application of the SVHC limit with respect to assembled products in this Guidance document is based on the “Once an article – always an article” approach. Generally it is easy to distinguish component parts of a product. For clearly defined components , the 0.1% limit should be applied to the whole component. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between the mixture of component parts, therefore the applicable standard will depend on the production process.

Example A: The cable is for professional use and consists of a core of copper wire with a PVC coating. The copper wire is a product in its own right before production of the cable, while the PVC is a liquid mixture. Therefore in this case the 0.1% limit should be applied to the whole cable.

Example B: A PCB assembled from many small  components does not change the requirement that the trigger limit must be applied to any object within the PCB that is identified as a component. The large number of components (such as various semi-conductors, the fan, the board itself, etc.), and that many of them are soldered and/or glued to the PCB, may, however, make it a challenge to determine which of them that existed as products in themselves before incorporation into the PCB.

CTI Suggestion

This Judgment has a great impact on calculating the basis for determining the approach to assessing SVHC based on a given product. Get right of SVHC concentrations calculate method, It is critical for enterprises to save costs and reduce risks. enterprises need focus on the new trends of this Judgment, suggests that manufacturers and importers assess the SVHC concentrations in each article of a complex product and, in turn, meet the communication, notification and authorisation obligations based on this determination.