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Although REACH has applied across the European Union since 2007, it continues to evolve through regular updates to the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs).
In 2025 alone, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) added eight new substances to the Candidate List, bringing the total number of SVHC entries to 250. These updates can create new information and communication obligations for companies placing products on the European market.
Understanding REACH therefore involves more than knowing which substances are restricted. It also requires understanding what information may need to be available about products and how this information is communicated across the supply chain.
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals.
The regulation establishes rules for the production, use, and management of chemical substances within the European Union. Its objective is to improve the protection of human health and the environment while ensuring the safe use of chemicals.
Although REACH is primarily a chemicals regulation, some of its requirements affect companies placing products on the market because information about substances may need to be collected, maintained, and communicated.
REACH applies to three broad categories:
An article is an object whose function is determined more by its shape, surface, or design than by its chemical composition. Examples may include garments, furniture, footwear, or electronics. (ECHA Guidance on Requirements for Articles.)
This distinction is important because specific REACH obligations can apply when articles contain certain substances.
One of the most important concepts under REACH is the Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC).
SVHCs are substances identified as potentially having serious effects on human health or the environment. They may include substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic for reproduction, persistent, bioaccumulative, or otherwise considered particularly concerning.
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) maintains a Candidate List of SVHCs, which is updated regularly.
For companies placing products on the market, the Candidate List is important because certain obligations may apply when a product contains an SVHC included on that list.
REACH does not only regulate substances themselves. It also creates obligations to communicate information about certain substances.
When an article contains an SVHC on the Candidate List above 0.1% weight by weight, suppliers must provide sufficient information to allow safe use of the article.
Consumers also have the right to request information about SVHCs present above this threshold.
This means compliance depends not only on knowing whether a substance is restricted, but also on being able to identify whether relevant substances are present in products and communicate this information when required.
REACH obligations do not depend only on whether a substance is restricted. Some requirements depend on knowing whether products contain Candidate List substances and whether specific communication obligations apply.
This information is often not visible from the finished product itself. It may need to be obtained from material suppliers, component suppliers, manufacturers, or other actors involved in the supply chain.
As a result, REACH is one of the earliest examples of European legislation where compliance can depend on information collected and maintained beyond the final product. Supplier declarations, material information, and product documentation can all play a role in determining whether obligations apply.
This principle remains relevant today. Many newer regulations also depend on information associated with products, even when their objectives differ from REACH.
Many newer European regulations build on information that companies are already required to collect under existing legislation.
For example, REACH establishes obligations to identify, communicate, and manage information on chemical substances throughout the supply chain. This information does not remain isolated within REACH: it increasingly supports compliance under other regulatory frameworks.
Under the ESPR, Digital Product Passports may include information on substances of concern where required by future delegated acts, building on existing product and chemical data rather than creating entirely new information requirements.
Similarly, France’s AGEC Law already requires certain product information, including environmental characteristics and, for some product categories, information related to substances, to be made available digitally to consumers.
The GPSR follows the same broader direction by requiring safety-related product information, responsible economic operators, and product identifiers to be available when needed.
Although these regulations pursue different objectives, they increasingly rely on the same principle: product compliance depends on accurate, structured, and accessible product information.
More than fifteen years after its introduction, REACH also provides an early example of a principle that continues to appear across European product legislation: compliance increasingly depends on information that can be traced, verified, and communicated when required.
Renoon helps organisations build a single source of product information that can support multiple regulatory requirements, from REACH and product safety obligations to future Digital Product Passports.
See how a connected product information approach can reduce the need to repeatedly collect, manage, and verify the same information for different regulations.
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