Overview#
A restriction is the REACH tool that limits or bans a substance directly. The rules sit in Annex XVII. When a substance is restricted for a use, the limit applies on its own. There is no application to file and no permission to wait for.
This makes restriction the blunt, broad instrument of REACH. It is used when a risk needs to be controlled across the whole EU market rather than handled company by company.
How it differs from authorisation#
The limit applies directly to everyone for the listed uses. No one applies for anything. If you are within scope, you comply.
Use is banned after a sunset date unless a company applies and the Commission grants permission for that specific use.
How to read an entry#
Annex XVII is a table of two columns, and almost all of the work is in the second one. Column 1 designates the substance, the group of substances or the mixture. Column 2 holds the conditions of restriction, written as numbered paragraphs, and those paragraphs are what actually binds you.
A derogation paragraph sets its own end date for the sector it names, and that date can fall before the general date as easily as after it. An entry that reads "shall not be placed on the market as of 2030" can still take one sector off the market in 2026, because the paragraph permitting that sector runs out first. Find the paragraph that names what you do, and work from its date.
A worked example#
Entry 82, added in October 2025, restricts PFAS in firefighting foams. It shows every one of those parts at once: column 1 defines PFAS structurally rather than by name, paragraph 1 sets a limit of 1 mg/L and a general date of 2030, paragraph 2 carves out sub-groups already banned elsewhere while paragraph 3 insists they still count toward the measured sum, paragraphs 5 and 6 give each sector its own date between 2026 and 2035, and paragraphs 7 to 10 attach conditions of use and a labelling duty to whatever is still allowed.
A typical entry is smaller than that. Reading a large one is good practice for reading the rest, because the parts are always in the same order.
See the REACH annexes for how this fits with authorisation.