ECHA welcomes the decisions of the Board of Appeal of 10 October 2011

News Alert

ECHA/NA/11/49
Media enquiries: ECHA Press

In the light of the Board of Appeal's decisions, ECHA is modifying its standard letters to registrants and reminds potential registrants on the importance of paying their REACH fees on time.

Helsinki, 13 October 2011 - As reported yesterday, in one of the cases the Board of Appeal (BOA) decided in favour of the appellant, because it found that the Agency had not provided clear enough information to the registrant on the deadline for payment of their fee. In the other case, the BOA decided in favour of ECHA and confirmed that the Agency had acted correctly in rejecting the registration.

Even though the rulings were confined to the specific circumstances of each case, ECHA in particular welcomes that the Board of Appeal confirmed that the Agency is bound to strictly apply the provisions of the REACH Regulation and the associated Fee Regulation. They confirm that ECHA has to reject registrations for which the fee is not paid in full by the second payment deadline. This clarification will hopefully increase legal certainty for companies and avoid future disputes.

Concerning the remarks made on the clarity of communication with registrants, ECHA will be carefully reviewing its communications in the light of the Board of Appeal's guidance. Even before these decisions were issued, modifications had been made to the way ECHA issues invoices in REACH-IT. Now further changes are being made to the letters sent to registrants to make the deadline for payment absolutely clear as well as the consequences of late payment.