REACH is a European Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals.
It creates a European Chemicals Agency. Its scope is to ensure a high level of human health and environmental protection, with the goal of achieving sustainable development.
This text is directly applicable in all the Member States of the European Union. REACH is not a regulation among others, it is rather a key which opens or closes the European market. In Europe, REACH is the key factor for preparations or articles manufacture and marketing under the principle “No data, No market” (Art 5).
Downstream User means “any natural or legal person established within the community, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who uses a substance” (Art 3.13). REACH is based on the concepts of substances and tonnage. The concepts of downstream user and substances are tightly related and therefore the manufacturer of a substance can be very well the downstream user of another. REACH does not distinguish any particular profile within a company; it thus implies all the services (purchase, production, health, security, environment, legal, etc.).