REACH Glossary

Article: means an object which during production is given a special shape, surface or design which determines its function to a greater degree than does its chemical composition

Distributor: means any natural or legal person established within the Community, including a retailer, who only stores and places on the market a substance, on its own or in a preparation, for third parties

Downstream user: means any natural or legal person established within the Community, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who uses a substance, either on its own or in a preparation, in the course of his industrial or professional activities. A distributor or a consumer is not a downstream user. A re-importer exempted pursuant to Article 2(7)(c) shall be regarded as a downstream user

Importer: means any natural or legal person established within the Community who is responsible for import

Intermediate: means a substance that is manufactured for and consumed in or used for chemical processing in order to be transformed into another substance

Manufacturer: means any natural or legal person established within the Community who manufactures a substance within the Community

Placing on the market: means supplying or making available, whether in return for payment or free of charge, to a third party. Import shall be deemed to be placing on the market

Polymer: means a substance consisting of molecules characterized by the sequence of one or more types of monomer units. Such molecules must be distributed over a range of molecular weights wherein differences in the molecular weight are primarily attributable to differences in the number of monomer units. A polymer comprises the following: (a) a simple weight majority of molecules containing at least three monomer units which are covalently bound to at least one other monomer unit or other reactant; (b) less than a simple weight majority of molecules of the same molecular weight. In the context of this definition a "monomer unit" means the reacted form of a monomer substance in a polymer

Preparation: means a mixture or solution composed of two or more substances

Registrant: means the manufacturer or the importer of a substance or the producer or importer of an article submitting a registration for a substance

Substance: means a chemical element and its compounds in the natural state or obtained by any manufacturing process, including any additive necessary to preserve its stability and any impurity deriving from the process used, but excluding any solvent which may be separated without affecting the stability of the substance or changing its composition