On August 24, the Korean Ministry of Environment issued the Notification 2020-182 to amend the list of existing biocidal substances subject to deferred approval. South Korea enacted the “Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides(K-BPR)” in 2018, requiring manufacturers and importers of biocidal substance to obtain a substance approval from the Ministry. Biocidal substances used in biocidal products or treated articles placed in Korea before December 31, 2018, are allowed to be designated as “existing biocidal substances subject to deferred approval” and manufactured or imported without obtaining the approval within their grace period if their producers and manufacturers fulfilled reporting and submission obligations: Notify MoE the basic information on the substance before June 30, 2019, including name, trade name and use type, etc.; Submit to the MoE the plan for the application of substance approval within 1 year after the substance being designated as the existing substance. For substance manufactured or imported by multiple companies, the plan shall be submitted separately and one of the companies can be selected as the representative of data submitter for the joint submission. The data can also be used by other applicants not yet participate in the joint submission through MoE’s data compensation system. If the manufacturer or importer failed to submit the plan or application for substance approval, the notified substance will be deemed as difficult to submit the data within the grace period and manufacturer or importer will be prohibited from business activities. If all manufacturers and importers of the substance were prohibited, the designation of the substance will be canceled. On December 31, 2019, MoE issued the Notification 2019-249 and a total of 741 substances were designated as the existing substances. The chemical name, CAS number, use type, grace period, and notifying co

On 20 March 2018, South Korea officially enacted its biocide regulation, “Law 15511-Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides”. This regulation comprises 60 articles organized into 7 chapters plus 5 articles in the Annex.  The new regulation establishes a fundamental framework of safety verification on household chemical products and pre-approval of biocidal substances and products. Depending on the notification and application plan of existing biocidal substances, K-BPR will offer different grace periods for biocidal substances and products. Some deadlines will be due as early as 2020 while others have been extended until 2032. All deadlines and corresponding eligibility criteria/clauses are summarized below.