• Manufacturers, importers and downstream users have to classify substances or mixtures before placing them on the market;
• Suppliers have to label and package substances and mixtures placed on the market;
• Manufacturers, producers of articles and importers have to classify those substances not placed on the market that are subject to registration or notification under REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006.
• Manufacturers and importers have to notify the classification and labelling elements of their substances to ECHA if these have not been submitted as part of a REACH registration. This notification also applies to hazardous substances placed on the market (import is deemed to be placing on the market (CLP Article 2 – definition of placing on the market)) either on their own or in a mixture above a concentration resulting in the mixture being classified as hazardous.

‘Supplier’ means any manufacturer, importer, downstream user or distributor placing on the market a substance, on its own or in a mixture, or a mixture.

‘Downstream user’ means any natural or legal person established within the Community, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who uses a substance, either on its own or in a mixture, in the course of his industrial or professional activities. A distributor or a consumer is not a downstream user (same definition as under REACH). A re-importer exempted pursuant to Article 2(7)(c) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (i.e. substances already registered by an actor up the supply chain) shall be regarded as a downstream user.

‘Distributor’ means any natural or legal person established within the Community, including a retailer, who only stores and places on the market a substance, on its own or in a mixture, for third parties.

In light of new CLP changes, A.I.S.E. has prepared 2 brochures ('Read the label') for consumers and professional users with the purpose of triggering their awareness and explaining the changes in order to ensure the safe use of products. For more details click here.

See also the consumer information portal www.cleanright.eu. 

In practice, a company which needs to classify a mixture (e.g. for skin and eye effects) has the following options:

• Generate new in vitro test data on the complete mixture: this takes time and can be expensive if companies have a lot of mixtures to classify.
• Apply the bridging principles: this can only be done if test data exist for a number of ‘reference mixtures’ from which bridging is performed.
• Calculate the classification using the additivity method. This is the easiest option, but it is also the most conservative one.