On September 10, 2015, the EU Court of Justice delivered a key decision on the concept of an "article" containing Substances of Very High Concern ("SVHC"), which are included in the Candidate List. The decision examined the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals ("REACH") obligations. This regulation requires that the European Chemicals Agency ("ECHA"), the recipients of the article, and customers (upon request) be notified of any article placed on the EU market that contains SVHC in a concentration above 0.1% w/w. The legal issue has been whether the 0.1% w/w threshold should apply to either (i) a complex product, consisting of several separate component articles, or (ii) each of such component articles. The court held that the obligations apply to any article, including those incorporated as component articles of a complex product. Thus, any EU supplier of food packaging, including any food business operator that supplies packaged foods, must have sufficient information about the content of SVHC in all the packaging components (lids, gaskets, decorative components, etc). To address the court's findings, ECHA has already announced it will update the current Guidance by the end of this year.
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