Companies Appeal ECHA’s Requests for Information Concerning Nanoforms

On July 16, 2015, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced the following appeals in which the keywords include nanoforms:

• J.M. Huber Finland Oy, Case A-011-2015;
• RHODIA OPERATIONS SAS, Case A-010-2015;
• IQESIL SA, Case A-009-2015; and
• Evonik Degussa GmbH, Case A-008-2015.

The cases all concern silicic acid, aluminum sodium salt. The contested decisions were adopted December 17, 2014, following a compliance check under the dossier evaluation procedure of the submitted registration. In each contested decision, ECHA found that the registration did not comply with the requirements of Article 10(a)(ii), as well as Annex VI, Section 2 of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation. ECHA requested that each appellant submit the following information:

• Name, molecular, and structural formula, or other identifier of the substance (Annex VI, 2.1 and 2.2);
• Composition of the substance (Annex VI, 2.3); and
• Description of the analytical methods used (Annex VI, 2.3.7).

In each case, the appellant contends that ECHA breached the principle of legal certainty by requesting information related to undefined terms, such as “forms,” “grades,” and “nanoforms.” Each appellant asks the Board of Appeal to annul the contested decision in so far as it requests the appellant to submit information as identified in the appeal.