REACH
EU Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 that requires registration of chemical substances manufactured or imported at 1 tonne or more per year per legal entity, with a Chemical Safety Report added above 10 tonnes per year.
EU & UK complianceTL;DR: This term is one of 37 definitions in the freight glossary, so the signal is the number it changes — not the acronym. It sits in the EU & UK compliance category and links to 4 related terms for adjacent freight math. Use the example below to turn the definition into a before/after calculation before you quote or clear cargo.
What it means
REACH (EU Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006) makes registration of a chemical substance mandatory once a legal entity manufactures or imports 1 tonne or more per year, with a Chemical Safety Report required above 10 tonnes per year. The registration threshold is a cliff, not a gradient. At 900 kg/yr, the importer is below the line: 900 kg ÷ 1,000 kg = 0.9 tonnes per year, so no registration dossier is due. At 1,000 kg/yr, the same calculation gives 1.0 tonnes per year and the full registration obligation switches on with one extra 100 kg. Above 10,000 kg/yr, the chemical safety report adds another layer of data to the same dossier. ECHA runs the registry, but the data duty sits with the importer or manufacturer. The part most guides skip is that the threshold is per legal entity and per substance, not per product line: two product lines that each carry 600 kg of the same substance inside one entity total 1,200 kg and cross the line.
Why it matters
REACH is a cliff, not a slope: at 900 kg/yr you owe no registration, at 1,000 kg/yr you owe a full dossier, and at 10,000 kg/yr the Chemical Safety Report adds another compliance layer. Plan the tonnage line before ordering, because the obligation is triggered by total annual volume per legal entity.
Example
An importer brings in 950 kg of a plasticiser per year with no REACH registration; a new product line pushes the same substance to 1,000 kg per year, so the full registration dossier becomes due from that year onward — a 50 kg volume change that flips the compliance obligation.
Related terms
CE Marking
A conformity mark that is mandatory for products covered by around 30 EU harmonised directives or regulations before they can be placed on the EU single market.
Learn more →UKCA
UK Conformity Assessed — the UK product marking introduced on 1 January 2021 to replace CE, now indefinitely recognising CE marking for most product areas after repeated delays.
Learn more →Union Customs Code (UCC)
Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, in force since 1 May 2016, setting EU customs rules for valuation, origin and procedures, with duty levied on the transaction value adjusted to a CIF basis at the EU border.
Learn more →HS Code
Harmonized System Code — an internationally standardized numeric code used to classify traded products for customs and duties.
Learn more →