What is an SVHC? The REACH Candidate List Explained

The purchase order has one extra line this year. "Confirm no SVHCs above 0.1%."

Your buyer will not release payment without it. The parts came from a dozen suppliers, and the phrase is new to half of them.

Three letters, one threshold, and a list that changes twice a year. That is what sits behind that line.

This guide covers what an SVHC is, how a substance lands on the Candidate List, the 0.1% rule, and the duties that follow.

What is an SVHC?

SVHC stands for substance of very high concern. It is a REACH term for a chemical serious enough to deserve special tracking.

A substance becomes an SVHC when it meets one of the criteria in Article 57 of REACH. The main ones are:

• CMR: carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction.
• PBT or vPvB: persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, or very persistent and very bioaccumulative.
• Equivalent concern: cases such as endocrine disruptors, judged on the same level of seriousness.

If a substance clears that bar, ECHA can add it to the Candidate List. That is the moment duties begin.

What is the Candidate List?

The Candidate List is the official register of SVHCs. It is the list your buyer means when they ask about SVHCs.

It holds more than 250 substances today, and it grows. ECHA updates it about twice a year, usually in winter and summer.

The name is a clue to what comes next. These are candidates for authorisation, the phase-out track under REACH. Some later move to Annex XIV, the Authorisation List, and need permission to use at all.

So the list is not static. A part that was clean last year can carry a listed substance this year, without anything about the part changing.

The rule that decides your duty: 0.1%

The Candidate List matters to importers because of one threshold.

If an article contains an SVHC above 0.1% by weight, duties switch on. Below that, they do not.

The test is per article, not per whole product, as the EU Court of Justice confirmed in Case C-106/14. This is the point most people miss.

A cable, a zip, a coated screw, each counts as its own article. A tiny component over 0.1% triggers the duty even if the substance is a rounding error across the finished product.

What duties does an SVHC trigger?

Once an article is over the 0.1% line, three duties follow.

• Communicate down the chain. Under Article 33 of REACH, you must give business customers enough information to use the article safely, at minimum the name of the substance.
• Answer consumers. A consumer can ask whether an article contains an SVHC. You must reply within 45 days, free of charge.
• Notify the SCIP database. Producers and importers of articles must notify ECHA's SCIP database for Candidate List substances above 0.1%.

None of these is a certificate. They are ongoing duties, tied to a list that keeps moving.

SVHC, restriction, and the passport

An SVHC on the Candidate List is about disclosure. It does not, by itself, ban the substance.

A hard limit or ban is a different mechanism, a restriction under REACH Annex XVII. A substance can sit on the Candidate List, face an Annex XVII restriction, or both.

Substance data is also becoming a published field, not just a filing. As the Digital Product Passport rolls out, substances of concern are among the data a passport is expected to carry, which pushes SVHC tracking from a yearly scramble into a standing record.

How Bindu handles SVHCs

The hard part of SVHCs is not the rule. It is keeping up with a list that changes and a threshold that bites per part.

Bindu resolves each part to the substances it is actually made of, by EC and CAS number, then screens it against the Candidate List version of that day. When the list updates, past screenings can run again, so an answer that was clean last year does not quietly go stale.

If you want the wider picture first, start with what is REACH. See the REACH breakdown.

FAQ

What does SVHC stand for? SVHC stands for substance of very high concern. It is a REACH classification for chemicals that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction, persistent and bioaccumulative, or of equivalent concern such as endocrine disruptors.

Source: EUR-Lex: REACH Article 57, substances to be included in the Candidate List

What is the REACH Candidate List? The Candidate List is ECHA's official list of substances of very high concern. It holds more than 250 substances and is usually updated twice a year. Substances on it can later move to the authorisation list.

Source: ECHA: Candidate List of substances of very high concern

What is the 0.1% rule for SVHCs? If an article contains a Candidate List substance above 0.1% by weight, the importer or producer has duties to communicate and to notify SCIP. The threshold applies per article, so a small component over 0.1% can trigger it on its own.

Source: Court of Justice of the EU: Case C-106/14 (the 0.1%-per-article ruling)

Do I have to answer consumer questions about SVHCs? Yes. Under REACH, a consumer can ask whether an article contains a Candidate List substance above 0.1%. You must respond within 45 days, free of charge.

Source: EUR-Lex: REACH Article 33, duty to communicate on substances in articles

What is the SCIP database? SCIP is ECHA's database of Substances of Concern In articles as such or in complex objects. Producers and importers of articles must notify SCIP when an article contains a Candidate List substance above 0.1% by weight.

Source: ECHA: SCIP database