Enterprises in Breach of Hazard Examination under TCCA Now Have Six Months to Register Their New Chemical Substances Under K-REACH

Although the original TCCA has been repealed and replaced by K-REACH (which came into force on 1 Jan 2015), some issues associated with breaches of hazard examination under TCCA regulations have not yet been dealt with.

Korea MoE intends to spend 6 months to focus on the rectification of enterprises in breach of the previous TCCA regulations for all new chemical substances in quantities at or above 100 kg per year in Korean markets that have not been subject to hazard examination under TCCA prior to the manufacture or import activities. For such cases, MoE is offering Korean manufacturers and importers the chance to voluntarily submit registration dossiers under K-REACH from the 22nd of May 2015 to the 21st of Nov 2015 to the NIER to exempt them from punitive measures as specified in TCCA.

The registration requirements are in line with K-REACH rather than the TCCA. However, for the registration form, information relating to predicted manufacture/import amount per year should be updated to include the previous year’s information and corresponding manufacture/import amount. If unable to submit a testing report within this deadline, a copy of the testing contract can be submitted in lieu of this information.

For enterprises that have finished the registration within the deadline, the punishment for hazard examination violation as specified under TCCA can be foregone, including all enterprises already charged or required to suspend business or enterprises currently under investigation. However, if enterprises fail to submit required information within the current registration window they will be subject to punishments including imprisonment with prison labor for no more than 5 years or fines not exceeding 50 million won.

The registration dossier should be submitted in written form, as the current K-REACH IT based registration system is incompatible with TCCA specifications.

In cases where manufacturers and importers are unable to identify the regulatory status of their substances (whether it is still new substance subject to registration), telephone inquiries can be made to the KCMA at telephone 02-3019-6734,6742,6778.