An Only Representative is according to article 8 of the REACH regulation 1907/2006 a “natural or legal person established outside the community who manufactures a substance on its own, in mixtures or in articles, formulates a mixture or produces an article that is imported in the Community to fulfill, as his only representative, the obligations on importers under this Title.“
According to ECHA’s summary Only representatives have to be:
- A natural person or legal entity established physically in the European Economic Area (EEA)
- Equipped with sufficient knowledge in the practical handling of the substances and information related to them
- Appointed by a mutual agreement with a manufacturer, formulator or article producer, established outside the EEA
- Responsible for complying with the legal requirements for importers under REACH
As explained above, non-EU companies can take part in the REACH registration process via an Only Representative (OR). The OR represents your interests before the European authorities, ensures your REACH compliance and fulfils all your legal responsibilities.
When choosing an OR you have three options as a non-EU company:
- You set up a legal entity based in Europe that will act as your OR. This option requires legal & administrative preparation. Also, you should be aware that the legal entity must be a real company, not just a postal address, i.e. authorities should be able to talk to a representative directly.
- You designate your EU customer (distributor or importer) to act as your OR. This option is risky in the sense that you have to be ready to share some proprietary & confidential information with your customer. You will also find that mixing business with compliance will bring a different nature to your collaboration.
- You designate a regulatory consulting firm such as EcoMundo. This option allows you to trust a neutral company expert in REACH compliance.
Why do I need to appoint an Only Representative?
You should appoint an OR if you want to better control the business you do with European customers and have more choice when it comes to new collaborations. If you choose not to appoint an OR you will be restricted in your client choice and will only be able to deal with REACH compliant clients.
Basically you could be faced with two situations:
- Your EU client is already REACH compliant and they accept to take into consideration the tonnage that you sell to them, i.e. you’re covered by your client’s REACH registration.
- Your EU client is not compliant, or does not want to register for any supplier: you cannot do business with such client unless you designate an OR and take care of your own REACH compliance.
Follow our example:
If a company sells 95 metric tonnes (MT) to “company B” then “company B” must ensure REACH registration for the tonnage band 1-100 MT. When the non-EU company A starts selling 10 MT to Company B, there are two options:
1) Company B can update its registration dossier with the non-EU company’s data to ensure REACH compliance with the higher tonnage band: 100 to 1,000 MT. In this case, “company A” forces “company B” to update its registration dossier to a higher tonnage band.
2) “Company B” can require “company A” to appoint an Only Representative so that he does not have to updated its registration dossier to a higher tonnage band.
Appointing an Only Representative is a win-win situation for “company A” and “company B”:
- Company B will avoid additional costs associated to the necessary update of the REACH dossier
- Company A will secure business with Company B and will be able to find new customers.
