News Details

On 26 May 2026, the European Union published Regulation (EU) 2026/1165 amending the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) (Regulation (EU) No 528/2012) as regards the extension of certain data protection periods. The Regulation will enter into force on 15 June 2026.

The Regulation extends these periods until 31 December 2030under the EU biocides review programme. This applies to active substance/product-type combinations for which an approval decision had not been adopted by 7 June 2018.

According to the Regulation, the extension was introduced in response to significant delays in the review programme. The European Commission noted that the competent authorities of many Member States had not met the deadlines for submitting assessment reports to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The Regulation cites several contributing factors, including limited resources in Member States, the insufficient quality of some initial applications, delays in the submission of additional data, evolving technical guidance and the introduction of endocrine disruptor criteria under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/2100.

Protection for Newly Generated Data

The Regulation highlights that additional data has been generated since 7 June 2018 to support evaluations, including data required for the assessment of endocrine-disrupting properties, as well as updated data requests from the evaluating authorities.

Without an extension, the protection period for such newly generated data would have been significantly shorter than for data submitted earlier in the review programme. The EU has therefore decided to extend the protection period for all data related to the affected active substance/product-type combinations until 31 December 2030.

According to the Regulation this corresponds to a maximum protection period of 11 years and 6 months for data generated since 7 June 2018.

Compensation Claims for Previously Unprotected Period

The Regulation also addresses the period between 1 January 2026 and 15 June 2026, during which the affected data were temporarily unprotected following the expiry of the previous protection period. Under the amendments, data owners may claim compensation from substance suppliers or product suppliers that benefitted from the absence of protection and were included on the Article 95 list during that period.

Future Review of the BPR Framework

The Regulation notes that the EU review programme for existing biocidal active substances was previously extended until 31 December 2030 under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1398.

The Commission has also confirmed that it will conduct a full evaluation of the BPR during 2026–2027, including an assessment of the current data protection rules and possible future changes to the system.