REACH
In its 2011 edition, Legal 500 recommends MLA’s REACH practice and note that the team“…has ‘good business acumen and industry knowledge’ with, Brussels Office Managing Partner, Ursula Schliessner delivering ‘very good advice in a short time’. The team manage seven REACH consortia and provide legal services to another twelve."
The EU REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) was adopted in December 2006, and entered into force on June 1, 2007. REACH impacts all manufacturers, EU importers and downstream users of chemical substances, as well as manufacturers and EU importers of articles. It indirectly, but significantly, affects non-EU exporters and their suppliers.
Timely REACH preparation and planning by affected companies is needed to ensure compliance and reduce both potential costs and the impact of REACH on present and future business. REACH may also offer opportunities for those stakeholders who quickly grasp and meet their REACH obligations, thereby turning business challenges into competitive advantages.
The environmental and competition attorneys in the Brussels and Washington, DC offices of McKenna Long & Aldridge (MLA) provide a broad spectrum of REACH-related advice and services to our clients in core areas, including:
- Counseling on REACH implementation and compliance issues; and
- Working to minimize costs and impacts of REACH by developing strategic action plans.
MLA has created an on-line tool for issuance of REACH letters of access for its consortia and other clients. To access this page, please visit http://www.mlalaw.eu/.
Our REACH legal services include:
Training
- On-site training sessions: For executives, business managers, general counsel, regulatory specialists, purchasing and marketing managers, and others with responsibilities that are impacted by REACH.
Impact and/or Compliance Audit
- Pre-audit and Audit: Preparation of a detailed questionnaire to understand the company’s structure, business units and products. Analysis of the evidence obtained.
- REACH compliance report: Analysis featuring information about REACH tailored to what is relevant to each company; recommended actions per product, business unit and legal entity, and estimated timeline for implementation and cost.
REACH Manual
- Company-specific or industry association-specific manual: Description of relevant REACH provisions, sample of a REACH chemicals inventory, outline of registration obligations, consortia formation and functioning of Substance Information Exchange Fora (SIEF), flowchart on relevant REACH timelines and related obligations.
Product Defense
- Development of strategies to obtain most preferable status under REACH: Assess notification under current scheme versus registration, assess pre-registration versus direct registration, and assess individual versus joint registration.
- Devising strategies to address potentially threatened substances: Analysis of exemptions, restrictions, authorizations, voluntary agreements, classification, candidate lists, defense and litigation.
Representation in SIEF/Consortium Management
- Addressing legal, technical and financial implications: Based on many years of related experience, our REACH team provides counsel to companies on consortia formation, including data sharing and data compensation.
- Establishment and Management of Consortia: Identification of potential consortium partners (prior to SIEF), representation in SIEF or other consortia, development of SIEF strategies, consortium management services, including accounting of consortia, internally or, as necessary, through outside auditors.
- Document development: Drafting of preliminary and/or model consortia agreements, confidentiality agreements, letters of access, and compensation formulas.
- Establishment of EU entities: Assist with setting up EU entities, as well as setting up “only representatives” or “third-party representatives.”
- “Opt out” assessments: Assessment of justification for “opt out” of joint registration dossiers.
Competition Compliance Issues
- Counseling: We have extensive experience in counseling both EU and non-EU companies on competition compliance issues related to REACH, in particular in those aspects that might raise potential antitrust conflicts, such as membership and operation of consortia, access to data and exchange of confidential information in consortia and SIEFs, and cost sharing mechanisms.
- Representation before antitrust agencies: We regularly represent defendants and complainants in antitrust procedures before the European Commission and national competition authorities.
Other Services
- Representation before European institutions: European Commission, European Chemicals Agency, and national competent authorities.
- Appeals/litigation: Appeals before the agency board of appeal, and litigation before the European courts.
- Assistance with REACH issues in relation to mergers and acquisitions: Due diligence, pricing, substance registration continuity issues in case of asset deals, representations and warranties.
- Commercial contracts/insurance coverage: Drafting of REACH clauses for commercial contracts and review of insurance coverage for REACH.
Advisories
Publications
- REACH - List of Substances
- Opportunity for TSCA reform in the 112th US Congress
- REACH Revisited: The New EU Chemical Regulation in Full Swing