The next enforcement project under the biocidal products Regulation (BPR) will check biocidal products on the EU market for the presence of approved and non-approved active substances, ECHA’s Enforcement Forum has confirmed.

The BPR subgroup of the Forum (BPRS) agreed on the scope of the project, BEF-2, at a virtual meeting on 23 March. Controls will cover all BPR product types and include both biocides already authorized under the BPR, as well as products covered only under transitional measures in specific EU member states.

Inspectors will verify active substances by chemical analysis and confirm that every chemical that has come from a distributor is listed on the BPR’s Article 95 list of approved suppliers. They might also check the labeling and online advertising, the Forum heard, and target disinfectants as a priority. Hand and surface sanitizers have come under scrutiny in national monitoring projects after being subject to unusually high demand and loosened legal requirements over the past year.

Inspectors will carry out inspections throughout 2022 and a report is due to publish in 2023. The BPRS’s previous project focused on online sales and was carried out in 2020. The results are yet to publish.

The March meeting also confirmed the scope of the Forum’s Reach-En-Force 10 (REF-10) project, which will involve inspectors checking whether companies are complying with restrictions on hazardous chemicals in articles and mixtures on the single market.

The next Forum meeting will take place from 14–18 June.

Reference: https://echa.europa.eu/-/enforcement-forum-agrees-on-scope-of-checks-for-consumer-products-and-biocides-in-2022