(1)

In order to avoid overloading authorities and natural or legal persons with the work arising from the registration of substances that were already on the internal market when Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 entered into force, Article 23 of that Regulation established a transitional regime for phase-in substances. Consequently, a number of different transitional deadlines for the registration of such substances were laid down. It follows from Article 23(3) of that Regulation that the final registration deadline in that transitional regime expired on 1 June 2018.

(2)

In order to ensure equality between market operators manufacturing or placing on the market phase-in and non-phase-in substances, it is necessary to specify the applicability, after the expiry of the transitional regime, of provisions that laid down favourable conditions for the registration of phase-in substances. Therefore, for those provisions, an appropriate, reasonable and clear cut-off date should be set, after which those provisions should either no longer apply or only apply in specific circumstances.

(3)

Article 3(30) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 sets conditions for the calculation of the quantities per year of phase-in substances based on the average production or import volumes for the three preceding calendar years. In order to ensure that market operators have sufficient time to make the necessary adjustments to their calculation methods, those conditions should, as a first measure, continue to apply until the specified cut-off date. To take into account the definition of ‘per year’ in Article 3(30) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, it is appropriate to set the cut-off date at the end of this calendar year (31 December 2019).

(4)

In line with the legislator’s intent to reduce the possible impact of registration obligations on low volume substances, Article 12(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 lays down less stringent information requirements for the registration of certain low volume phase-in substances, provided that they do not meet the criteria in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. Pursuant to Article 23(3) of that Regulation, those low volume phase-in substances needed to be registered by the deadline for registration on 1 June 2018. However after this deadline, to ensure equal treatment for registrants that join a registration or update their dossiers in accordance with Article 12(1)(b), that provision should, as a second measure, continue to apply after 1 June 2018.

(5)

On 1 June 2018, the formal operation of substance information exchange fora (SIEFs) ceased. However, as a third measure, the continuing data-sharing obligations of registrants should be reinforced and registrants should be encouraged to use similar informal communication platforms to enable them to meet their continuing registration and data-sharing obligations under both Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/9 (2).

(6)

It is appropriate to set out, as a fourth measure, that a potential registrant who pre-registered a phase-in substance in accordance with Article 28 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 should, until the specified cut-off date, not be required to follow the inquiry process set out in Article 26 of that Regulation because the objective of the inquiry process has already been fulfilled through the pre-registration.

(7)

It is necessary to ensure that data-sharing dispute processes are clearly identifiable. The data-sharing rules set out in Article 30 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 should therefore continue to apply until the specified cut-off date. After that cut-off date, only the data-sharing rules in Articles 26 and 27 of that Regulation should apply.

(8)

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established under Article 133 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006,