Overview#
Registration is the first "R" of REACH and its broadest duty. Manufacturers and importers must register each substance they place on the EU market, generally at or above 1 tonne per year, by submitting a registration dossier to ECHA that sets out the substance's identity, its uses and its safety data.
The guiding principle is short: "no data, no market." Without a valid registration a substance may not be manufactured in, or placed on, the EU market.
Tonnage bands and shared data#
How much data a registration must contain scales with the tonnage band — the annual volume placed on the market:
| Tonnage band | Typical data demand |
|---|---|
| 1–10 t/year | Baseline identity and hazard data |
| 10–100 t/year | More extensive testing, plus a Chemical Safety Report |
| 100–1000 t/year | Further test data |
| ≥1000 t/year | The fullest set of test and safety data |
A Chemical Safety Report is required from 10 tonnes per year upward. Higher tonnage means more required test and safety data.
Companies registering the same substance must submit jointly through a SIEF (Substance Information Exchange Forum), coordinated by a lead registrant. This "one substance, one registration" approach shares data and avoids duplicate animal testing.
Where it sits in REACH#
Registration is the broad baseline duty that builds the data foundation for everything else. Evaluation, authorisation and restriction then act on the riskiest substances, using the information registration produces. A non-EU manufacturer can appoint an Only Representative to register on its behalf so that EU importers do not each have to.