Case C‑535/15

Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg

v

Jost Pinckernelle

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals — Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH Regulation) — General obligation to register and information requirements — Unregistered chemicals — Export of unregistered chemicals outside the territory of the European Union)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 27 April 2017

Approximation of laws — Registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals — REACH Regulation — Obligation to register with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) — Scope — No obligation to register chemicals intended for export outside the territory of the European Union

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1907/2006, Arts 3(12) and 5)

Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency, amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC, read in conjunction with Article 3(12) of that regulation, must be interpreted as meaning that substances which have not been registered at the time of their import into the territory of the European Union in accordance with that regulation may be exported outside that territory.

(see para. 49, operative part)