RoHS and REACH obligations for importers

Two regimes, one question

RoHS and REACH are often mentioned in the same sentence because they arrive together in a supplier questionnaire. They are different regimes with different logic, and confusing them produces declarations that answer neither.

RoHS restricts the presence of ten substances in electrical and electronic equipment, above stated concentrations in homogeneous materials. REACH regulates chemicals more broadly, and for articles the key duties concern substances of very high concern, communication and, in the EU, database notification.

The question that decides most of the work is not which substances are listed. It is who is responsible. For an importer, the answer depends on what the importer does with the goods and how they are branded.

RoHS: substance limits and the category

RoHS applies to electrical and electronic equipment within its scope. The restrictions cover lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, polybrominated diphenyl ethers and four phthalates. The limits apply by weight in each homogeneous material, not to the average of the whole assembly.

That distinction matters for a plated part. A tin plating, a brass body and a plastic housing are three homogeneous materials, and each has to comply on its own. An average across the part can pass while one material fails.

The equipment category also matters, because the scope and the exemptions depend on it. A part supplied to a fixed installation and a part supplied in a handheld appliance are not automatically treated the same.

The practical request to a supplier is a declaration by homogeneous material, with the test reports or the material certificates behind it. A single line saying the part is RoHS compliant is a conclusion, not evidence.

The importer who becomes the manufacturer

Under the EU RoHS regime, an importer or distributor can take on the obligations of the manufacturer when it places equipment on the market under its own name or trademark, or when it modifies the equipment in a way that affects compliance.

That is not a technicality. It means the technical documentation, the conformity assessment and the declaration of conformity become the importer's responsibility, and the importer's name goes on the product.

If you buy a branded part and resell it unchanged under the original brand, the position is different from buying an unbranded part and putting your own label on it. Check which one you are doing before you assume the supplier's file covers you.

Keep the original supplier declaration and the product marking information. If you rebrand, the file has to be rebuilt around your identity, not just renamed.

REACH: articles, SVHC and the threshold

REACH applies to substances, mixtures and articles. For an article, the central duty is to check whether it contains a substance of very high concern above a concentration of 0.1 per cent by weight. The candidate list is updated, so the check has a date.

If the threshold is exceeded, the supplier of the article has information duties to the recipient, and a consumer can request the same information. The information has to be enough to allow safe use, and it has to be provided within the period set by the regulation.

The 0.1 per cent is calculated on the article as supplied, not on the homogeneous material. That is the opposite logic to RoHS, and it is a common source of confusion in supplier questionnaires.

A part can pass a RoHS declaration and still need a REACH statement, because the two tests use different boundaries and different lists. Ask for both, and ask for the date of the SVHC list used.

SCIP notification in the EU

In the EU, suppliers of articles containing a substance of very high concern above the threshold must notify the SCIP database. The notification covers the article, the substance, the safe use information and the identification of the supplier.

For an importer, the practical question is whether the notification has been made and by whom. If the supplier has made it, the importer needs the reference. If the supplier has not, the obligation may fall on the importer as the next actor in the chain.

SCIP is not a substitute for the Article 33 communication. It is a separate database duty. A supplier that says a part is registered may still not have provided the information that has to travel with the article.

Record the SCIP number in the part file and check it when the formulation changes. A new substance in the candidate list can turn a compliant part into one that needs a new notification.

The evidence chain

The evidence chain starts with the bill of materials and ends with a declaration you can defend. Each link needs a date and a scope.

Ask for the material composition by homogeneous material, the test reports with the laboratory and the method, the SVHC statement with the list date and the SCIP reference if applicable. Ask who prepared the declaration and on what basis.

Test reports have a shelf life in practice. A report from five years ago on a different production route is weak evidence. A report on the exact material from the current supplier is stronger, and a declaration backed by ongoing material certificates is stronger again.

Do not accept a declaration that covers a product family without naming the part. Family declarations are common and can be valid, but the link from the part to the family has to be documented.

UK and EU divergence

The UK has its own RoHS and REACH regimes. They started from the same base but have diverged, and the lists and the enforcement arrangements are not identical.

For a programme selling into both markets, that means two checks: one against the EU list and one against the UK list, with the relevant declaration for each. A single EU declaration is not automatically a UK declaration.

The divergence also affects labelling and the responsible person. Check the current guidance for each market rather than assuming the position has stayed aligned.

Build the file so the market is a field, not an assumption. That makes the difference visible when a substance is added in one jurisdiction and not the other.

Building the file

A workable file has one folder per part, with the drawing revision, the bill of materials, the RoHS declaration by material, the REACH statement, the SCIP reference where relevant and the supplier contact. Add a review date and a trigger list.

The triggers are predictable: a new supplier, a new material, a process change, a plating change, a new market, or an update to the candidate list. When one fires, the file is reviewed before the next shipment.

That is more work than collecting a certificate once. It is also the only version that survives a customer audit, a customs question or a product recall, because it can show what was known and when.