The system is used in Belgium, France, Germany, Serbia, Luxembourg, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Poland. The German Environment Agency (UBA) is the project coordinator. The Scan4Chem consumer application is translated into the respective languages. Its main objective is to facilitate communication on information about SVHC.
By supplier we mean any producer or importer of an article, any distributor or any other actor in the supply chain that places an item on the market. You can contact the company from which you purchased the article directly.
The list of substances of very high concern, which is updated twice a year, is available on the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) website.
These substances are considered to be present in an article when there is a concentration of at least 0.1% weight/weight (w/w). This obligation is described in Article 33 of the Reach regulation.
The supplier manual contains all the step-by-step information you need to use the AskREACH system.
You can also consult the explanation on the use of the AskREACH system online:
As part of the revised Waste Framework Directive [Art.9], the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is responsible for developing and maintaining the SCIP database, to which product suppliers have had to submit information on all articles they supply that contain SVHC (> 0.1%) since 5 January 2021.
AskREACH has been in contact with the SCIP team to explore synergies between the two databases. Challenges and commonalities have been identified and summarised in a document drawn up collaboratively between the two project teams. This document aims to explain the alignment and advantages of the two databases.
Specifying barcodes or company prefixes in AskREACH allows the system to match consumers with relevant suppliers from whom SVHC information on articles can be requested.
The application user will see the following information:
- the name of your company as defined in the supplier interface
- the data entry date
- whether or not the article contains SVHC > 0.1% (weight/weight)
- the name of any SVHC
- the version of the candidate list to which the information refers
- factsheets on each of the SVHC that are on the current candidate list
The information provided in the fact sheets is also available on the AskREACH project website.
You must encode the following mandatory information:
- language
- article name
- barcode (or ID)
- item category
- SVHC content > 0.1% (weight/weight)
- SVHC name(s)
You have the option to add a brand name, a description and an image of the article. You can specify whether the SVHC is found in the article and/or in the packaging and provide more information about the location or concentration of the SVHC in the article. You can also provide a .pdf file for more information on the location, concentration or use of the article.
If an article's information is out of date, an "Update" button will appear in the "Candidate List" column of the relevant article. Click on this button to update it, then confirm in the "Update Candidate List for article" window that you want to update the article information so that it can refer to the most recent candidate list.
The Inspection Department of the DG Environment of the FPS Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment is responsible for monitoring compliance with the obligation set out in Article 33 of the REACH Regulation.
Failure to comply with this provision may result in criminal prosecution and is punishable by a prison sentence of between eight days and three years, and/or a fine of between 160 euros and 4,000,000 euros, under article 17 §1 of the Product Standards Act (the Act of 21 December 1998 on product standards aimed at promoting sustainable production and consumption patterns and protecting the environment, health and workers). The criminal fine must be increased in line with an indexation method (additional decimals, currently 8).
