Recently, the National Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIER) of South Korea passed and approved Act 2023-71. Bill No. 71, titled "Administrative Notice on the Amendment of the Regulations on the Designation of Active Substances in the Buffer Period", is mainly aimed at active substances with a buffer period of December 31, 2022, and the buffer period for such active substances is hereby extended to December 31, 2023.
Since the promulgation of the Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides (hereinafter referred to as the "Chemical Product Safety Act", South Korea's K-BPR Regulations) in 2018, South Korea** has launched a pre-registration system for active substances, which aims to help applicants better register active substances within the buffer period.
The system allows applicants to first perform a relatively simple pre-registration of active substances, which allows these substances to circulate in the Korean market within a specified buffer period and to synchronize the compliant registration of active substances. In addition, biocide products containing these pre-registered active substances can also enjoy an additional two-year declaration buffer period on top of the substance buffer period.
Active substance For the specific buffer period of related product types, please refer to the figure below
As shown in the chart above, the buffer period for the first batch of active substance-related product types ended at the end of 2022. As a result, active substances that have not been approved by December 31, 2022 will no longer be able to enter South Korea, and biocidal products containing these substances will need to be withdrawn from the market by December 31, 2024.
Therefore, the passage of Bill 71 can be described as a major change to the previous regulatory system. By extending the buffer period for active substances, the bill provides more time for products containing these active substances to meet compliance requirements and allows them to continue to be sold in the Korean market during the stipulated buffer period. That is, the buffer period for active substances is extended until December 31, 2023, and products containing such active substances can be sold until the end of 2025.
This change is significant for the relevant businesses and applicants. For active substance manufacturers, it is possible to sell as many active substances as possible before the end of 2023, so as to meet the needs of product manufacturers before 2025. For product manufacturers, this regulatory update provides more opportunities and space to complete the compliance registration of products.
This further promotes the safety management of active substances and related products, and also provides better opportunities and conditions for related enterprises in the market competition.
The following is a partial list of active substances that extend the buffer period (for reference only):