IS YOUR OR UP TO HIS TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES?
The following news was published in Chemical Watch on March 11, 2010. According to Dutch authorities an OR cannot be a mailbox-only company but must also fill the requirements of REACH regulation.
11-Mar-2010
Dutch inspectors are launching a campaign this week to target many REACH “Only Representatives” (OR) that they believe are not suitably qualified to do the job and could be creating substantial business risks for the overseas companies that hired them and downstream EU importers.
The Dutch Environment Ministry (VROM) has started a criminal and administrative sanction procedure with one Chinese OR, which submitted a large number of pre-registrations in the Netherlands, for breach of REACH conditions. Janine Killaars of VROM's enforcement unit told Chemical Watch that the company had simply had a mailbox address and when inspectors finally made contact with its owners on a visit to Europe, they were unable to provide sufficient documentation to prove that they could carry out the duties of an OR as stated in Article 8 of REACH.
Under Dutch law on REACH enforcement, a company can pay between €50,000-100,000 per day calculated as a proportion of the income it made from its non-compliant activities minus its administrative costs.
VROM has also submitted a criminal report on the case to the Public Prosecutor.
In VROM's view, a legitimate OR should be able to show inspectors:
• a record-keeping system with data on imported quantities and all uses covered;
• a complete list of EU customers within the same supply chain of the non-EEA manufacturer;
• information on the supply of safety data sheets.
Now, VROM intends to seek out other potential “mailbox ORs”. The process and objectives have been introduced and investigations will commence gradually in due course.
See further information and full article on the topic at Chemical Watch News.
© Reproduced by permission from Chemical Watch, http://chemicalwatch.com
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