K-BPR: What are impacts of the South Korea’s Consumer Chemical Products and Biocides Safety Management Law amendments to the industry?

The Consumer Chemical Products and Biocide Safety Act amendment, often known as K-BPR, was promulgated on 24 March, and 26 May 2020 and will be enforced on 1 January 2021. The following section outlines a brief background of K-BPR and the significant changes from the recent amendment.

The K-BPR was enforced on 1 January 2019 and regulates safety management of consumer products and biocides. This is achieved by assessment or notification of consumer chemical products’ risks, authorization of biocidal chemical substances and products.

On 31 December 2019, 741 biocide active substances were announced by the Ministry of Environment (MoE). Unlike the EU-BPR, manufacturers and importers shall submit an ‘approval plan’ by 31 December 2020 to be eligible for grace periods. Once they submit the approval plan, they can manufacture and import their substances during the grace periods. Currently K-BPR has no rules for only representative (OR) and only the manufacturer or importer based in South Korea can submit the approval plan.  

Major updates

From 1 January 2021, non-Korean manufacturers and exporters of biocidal substances can appoint an OR based in South Korea to gain approval of the use of biocidal active substances, grace period reporting and new risk reporting.

The MoE will disclose information on the notified and approved consumer products including the product name, manufacturer or importer details and the main components of the product etc. Subsequent announcement has not been released yet, about how the information be circulated.

The amendment includes provision for minimizing vertebrate animal testing when producing test data required under K-BPR.

If biocidal products and treated articles contain a banned substance, one year of a grace period is applied to manufacturers and importers of biocidal products and two years for treated articles manufacturers and importers. In case where treated articles’ manufacturers and importers cannot comply with safety and labelling standards, the MoE grants one year to address this issue once they justify reasons.  

Consumer chemical products and biocidal substances used for research and development purposes do not require approval from the MoE. Besides, if required test data are already submitted under K-REACH after 1 January 2019, data submission for biocidal products will be exempted.

Affected stakeholders and implications

The K-BPR amendment as outlined above will be enforced on 1 January 2021.

Chemical manufacturers and importers shall submit an approval plan to gain grace periods.

Overseas manufacturers and importers can appoint an OR to fulfill obligations under K-BPR from 1 January 2021.

Relevant Services provided by GPC Korea

• Regulatory compliance support
• Only Representative to fulfil various obligations under K-BPR

Updated: 17 July 2020