Collaboration in REACH registration
Keep in control of your communications
Click here for the Dutch version (Nederlandse versie)
REACH is a complex set of regulations that will lead to both obligatory collaboration between companies and a voluntary exchange of data about chemical substances. For example, REACH dictates that you may not duplicate studies on animals. As a result, you may be forced to exchange animal testing data. Collaboration and good communication will be crucial for controlling costs.
Your obligations
To register a chemical substance, you will be required by law to cooperate in a Substance Information Exchange Forum (SIEF). In such a forum, you will have to share information and research data with your competitors and supply chain. You need to come to a mutual agreement about the classification and labeling of particular chemical substances. If you bring a new substance to the market, you will first have to verify whether the substance has already been registered. If this is the case, you will need to use the research data that has already been registered and pay for it. If you have specific new data available on the substance in question, you are obliged to share this information and will receive compensation for it.
SIEFs and consortia
The initiative for making this new system work efficiently and effectively lies with the industry. You can form a consortium with colleagues, competitors and your supply chain, participate in an existing consortium, or even lead an SIEF. The objective of SIEFs and consortia is to allow companies to work together efficiently. In an SIEF, you will work with many parties that have changing roles as well as different rights, duties and obligations:
- Third-party representative: Representative of an disclosed registering party
- Downstream user: User of a substance further down the supply chain
- Only Representative: EU-based representative appointed by a registering party based outside the EU
- Third-party data holder: University, laboratory or other interested group that owns research data about a substance
- Consortium representation: voluntary collaboration between registering parties
- EU: The EU has established the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, where chemical substances have to be registered.
What can you expect from PwC?
- Consortium management services: We assist consortia in setting up and operating their financial management and administrative systems.
- Administrative services: We provide consortia with secretarial, bookkeeping and internal auditing services. We also provide services to enable your administrative organization to interact optimally with consortia administrations.
- Consortium Monitor: This tool provides independent advice on participating in existing consortia according to set criteria that a well-functioning REACH consortium should meet.
- Consortium Navigator: This tool provides an overview of active consortia that are open to new members, and helps you choose between them.
We can support companies that will need to participate in many consortia (10+). The administrative details of consortium membership depend on the individual consortium agreement and may change through time. To support your ambition to maximize income in this complex environment, we develop or use our existing tools to act as an interface between consortium administrations and your own ERP package.
