Even though Hapoc was not explicitly mentioned, some of the content has a significant impact on our field of activity and cluster authorisations. We would like to briefly summarise the key points below. The original English documents are also attached. We have also included a German translation for our German-speaking members.
Q&A: Impact of the Chemservice (CTAC) decision.
As reported on several occasions, all current decisions follow the court ruling in which the ECJ partially annulled the CTAC authorisation. This decision has a significant impact on current regulatory practice and the daily work of ECHA, the Commission and applicants.
The EU Commission must make two decisions on how to proceed in this case. First, the original application will be assessed in light of the court ruling. The decision can only be negative. In our view, this is not expected to happen until the review applications from CTACsub 2 can be decided at the same time. According to our information, an ECHA recommendation on this is expected by the end of 2024. A decision by the EU Commission or the REACh Committee is therefore expected in the course of the 2025 financial year. In the meantime, the transitional arrangement under Article 56(1)(d) will apply and the notified companies may continue to use chromium trioxide. There are no longer any additional conditions or notification requirements under Article 66.
At the same time, the HAPOC upstream authorisation, which was submitted before the ‘latest application date’ and which continues to allow the use of chromium trioxide for the applications described until the EU Commission's decision, remains in place. We will be contacting DG Grow in the next few days to emphasise once again the sensitivity and importance of this authorisation.
HAPOC must remain in place, at least until the restriction comes into force.
Q&A: Restriction
Much has already been written about the restriction. We will therefore refrain from explaining the reasons why and how it came about at this point. The only questions that can be answered are whether, when and how.
The mandate was submitted to the ECHA on 27 September 2023 and the draft is to be presented in April 2025. The second call for evidence is currently underway, in which Vecco and its members are heavily involved. The draft restriction and the subsequent public consultation will therefore certainly come. The Q&A states the earliest introduction date as the end of 2026. Whether this is realistic and whether the draft will pass smoothly and quickly through the decision-making bodies is, at the very least, doubtful.
Based on the political opinion-forming process, we assume that the restriction will not come into force until 2027/2028.
Finally, two notes on specific topics:
Functional applications with decorative character
The EU Commission points out that it is difficult to obtain majorities in the REACh Committee for decorative applications. On the contrary, the member states are pushing for substitution. For this reason, only additional conditions could bring about a compromise. These include a shortened review period and a requirement to reduce the amount of chromium trioxide used by 50%. These are significant hurdles that we must take into account for all decorative applications.
Civil aviation and defence
The applications submitted by the ADCR consortium are currently being discussed in this segment. The Commission intends to discuss all dossiers at the REACH Committee meetings on 20 September and 14 October and to take a final decision. If a company falls under the original ‘Chemservice’ application, it may continue to use chromium trioxide. However, it should also be noted that there may be an interim period during which some applications are not covered. Specifically, this concerns, for example, the passivation of metallic coatings or the passivation of stainless steel in the field of civil aviation. To ensure legal certainty, we kindly ask you to contact the relevant departments of your supplier.
Attachments:
-> Q&A No 1_Impact of Chemservice case on COM practice
-> Q&A No 2_Potential restriction of Cr(VI) substances
-> Q&A No 3_ADCR_Aerospace_Defence uses of Cr(VI) (2)
-> Q&A No 4_Functional chrome plating with decorative character (1)