The Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) introduces the possibility to have certain biocidal products authorised at Union level. This will allow companies to place their biocidal products on the market throughout the entire Union, without the need to obtain a specific national authorisation.
Union authorisation will give the same rights and obligations in all the Members States as those provided by national authorisations.
Union authorisation can be granted to biocidal products with similar conditions of use across the Union, except those containing active substances meeting the exclusion criteria and those belonging to product-types 14, 15, 17, 20 and 21. The timeframe for initiating the authorisation process is different depending on whether the product contains new or existing active substances.
New active substances
A product containing new active substances, also in combination with existing active substances, is eligible for Union authorisation from 1 September 2013.
Existing active substances
For biocidal products containing only existing active substances, Union authorisation will be available in three different stages, depending on the product-type:
- From 1 September 2013 for product-types 1, 3, 4, 5, 18 and 19
- From 1 January 2017 for product-types 2, 6 and 13
- From 1 January 2020 onwards to the remaining product-types 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16 and 22.
The list of biocidal products with Union authorisation will be published on the ECHA website.