Abstract
BackgroundThe EU chemicals regulation “Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals” (REACH) aims to reduce the usage of substances of very high concern (SVHCs) by firms. Therefore, a consumer right-to-know about SVHCs in articles is intended to create market-based incentives. However, awareness of the right-to-know among EU citizens is low. Moreover, the response window of 45 days afforded to suppliers impedes immediate, informed decisions by consumers. Consequently, despite being in effect for more than 10 years, only few consumer send requests. Civil society actors have developed smartphone applications reducing information search costs, allowing users to send right-to-know requests upon scanning an article’s barcode. Answers are stored in a database and made available to the public immediately. This paper assesses to which extent smartphone tools contribute to an increased use of the right-to-know by undertaking a case study of the application “ToxFox” by the German non-profit organisation Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND).ResultsAn analysis of the data from the BUND database for the period 2016 to 2018 reveals that about 20 thousand users have sent almost 49 thousand requests. This has led to more than 9 thousand database entries, including 189 articles which contain SVHCs above the legal threshold. The data also indicate that receiving information on requested articles encourages further use of the application. Many suppliers accept the application and pro-actively provide information on articles without SVHCs above the threshold. However, most consumers use the application only for a short time, and suppliers are struggling to reply to right-to-know requests.ConclusionEvaluating the results, the study identifies options to enhance the application’s design in terms of user motivation and legal certainty, and to enhance the framework governing "barcode" assignments to articles with a view to better contributing to transparency. As for policy implications, a lack of consumer requests can in part be traced back to design flaws of the right-to-know and a lack of implementation and enforcement of REACH. In addition, suppliers have to increase their supply chain communication efforts to make sure they are in a position to properly answer consumer requests. We recommend several policy options addressing these and additional aspects, thus contributing to the legislative review of Art. 33 REACH.
Highlights
International law and policies call for transparency and a high level of protection concerning consumer articles with problematic substances, i.e. chemicals with intrinsicSchenten et al Environ Sci Eur (2020) 32:114 properties that may cause damage to human health and/ or the environment
We focus on the smartphone application “ToxFox” by the German NGO “Friends of the Earth Germany” (BUND), which is one of originally only three existing tools of this kind and which has the largest user base [13]
Our main data set is built around the mail processor logs of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) database, where each entry refers to an email that was sent either by a user to a firm, i.e. a SVHC request, 24 European Court of Justice (CJEU), Case 106/14 FCD and FMB v Ministre de l’Écologie, du Développement durable et de l’Énergie (2015), §50
Summary
International law and policies call for transparency and a high level of protection concerning consumer articles with problematic substances, i.e. chemicals with intrinsicSchenten et al Environ Sci Eur (2020) 32:114 properties that may cause damage to human health and/ or the environment. Civil society actors have developed smartphone applications reducing information search costs, allowing users to send right-to-know requests upon scanning an article’s barcode. Overview of consumer tools and approaches NGOs and public authorities have developed several tools to reduce the information search costs for consumers making right-to-know requests. Consumers using this application first generated their personal profile by providing contact data They could send right-toknow requests by scanning the barcode attached to an article. The initial version of Scan4Chem and the other online inquiry tools did not help overcome the central limitation of Art. 33(2) REACH, i.e. the response time frame of 45 days and lack of a public database with information on SVHCs in articles. Three other smartphone apps combine the approach of Scan4Chem with a database which stores suppliers’
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