Does a plant protection product or biocidal product have to be registered under REACH?

REACH concerns professional activities involving chemical substances: manufacturing, selling and using such substances. REACH is a general set of regulations that does not focus on specific situations or specific environmental components.

Substances that are subject to an assessment as part of specific EU legislation, such as plant protection products, biocidal products and medicinal products, are exempt from the REACH obligations. However, active substances in plant protection products and biocidal products are included in the database of registered substances (Article 15 of the REACH Regulation 1907/2006). This is because these substances have other potential uses besides their use as a plant protection product, biocidal product or medicinal product.