REACH Annex XIV Authorisation List: Plastic Additives and Sunset Dates (26 Additive Entries)

REACH Annex XIV is the Authorisation List of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, the list of substances that may not be placed on the market or used in the EU after a fixed sunset date without an authorisation, and 26 of its 59 entries are plastic additives. Most of those sunset dates passed between 21 February 2015 and 1 May 2025, so what does an Annex XIV entry still require from a compounder in 2026? An entry controls uses, not the substance as such, and only one additive use, DEHP in medical devices, still has a sunset date ahead of it, on 1 July 2030.

ECHA's Authorisation List held 59 entries when this page was last verified against ECHA CHEM on 22 September 2026, and 26 of them are additives used in plastics: 14 phthalate plasticizers, 4 benzotriazole UV absorbers, 3 flame retardants and phosphate plasticizers, 3 lead chromate pigments and 2 organotin heat stabilizers. Each of the 26 was identified as a substance of very high concern on the SVHC Candidate List first.

This page defines the two dates every entry carries, registers the 26 entries that are plastic additives, grouped by the function they perform in the polymer, and lists their sunset dates and the four uses that are exempt or dated separately. It then covers how authorisation works for the user of an additive, what is proposed next, which other rule now binds each additive and how to check a compound in six steps. This is a technical reference, not legal advice, covering the Authorisation List, written authorization list in US spelling, as ECHA publishes it.

Annex XIV status verified: 22 September 2026 (ECHA CHEM Authorisation List). Next scheduled check: January 2027.

The 26 additive entries fall into five additive functions, listed below by number of entries.

Table T1. The 5 additive functions on Annex XIV at a glance

Counted from the 28 Annex XIV entries that relate to plastics, minus entries 42 and 43 (octylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates), which are surfactants rather than additives and are explained below the register.

What Is REACH Annex XIV?#

REACH Annex XIV is the Authorisation List of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006: every substance in it carries a sunset date after which it may not be placed on the market or used in the EU unless that specific use has been authorised. "Annex XIV", "Authorisation List" and "REACH Annex 14" name the same annex. Every one of its 59 entries was first identified as a substance of very high concern and placed on the Candidate List, so the Candidate List is the wider category and Annex XIV the narrower, dated one inside it. Where does that list sit in REACH, and why do plastic additives fill so much of it?

Authorisation is the third of the four REACH processes, after registration and evaluation and before restriction, and it is the slow route that takes a substance of very high concern from the Candidate List to a dated control on its use. Registration, evaluation and restriction, the other three processes, are explained in REACH and plastic additives. Plastic additives fill 26 of the 59 entries because the plasticizers, pigments and stabilizers dosed at percent level were among the first substances of very high concern identified: DEHP, DBP, BBP and HBCDD were all in the first Candidate List batch of 28 October 2008.

Latest application date and sunset date: the two dates in every entry#

Every Annex XIV entry carries two dates: the latest application date, by which a company must apply for an authorisation if it wants to keep using the substance, and the sunset date, after which that use is unlawful in the EU without one. The amending regulation that creates the entry fixes both dates, defined below.

• Latest application date (LAD): the deadline for applying for an authorisation for a use that a company wants to continue after the sunset date.
• Sunset date: the date from which the substance may not be placed on the market or used for any use that has not been authorised.

UV-328 shows how the two dates work for a plastic additive. ECHA placed the benzotriazole UV absorber on the Candidate List on 17 December 2014, Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/171 of 6 February 2020 added it to Annex XIV as entry 51, the latest application date was 27 May 2022 and the sunset date followed on 27 November 2023, with no exempted uses. The interval between 27 May 2022 and 27 November 2023 is 18 months, and the register shows the same 18-month interval in every additive entry, for example between 1 November 2023 and 1 May 2025 for DOTE in entry 58 (Regulation (EU) 2022/586). That interval is an observation from the published dates, not a rule stated on this page. So has UV-328 simply been banned since 27 November 2023?

Is a substance on Annex XIV banned after its sunset date?#

No: an Annex XIV entry does not ban the substance, it makes every use of it in the EU after the sunset date unlawful unless that use has been authorised, and it does not reach articles imported from outside the EU at all. A company holding an authorisation for a named use may continue that use, and every other use stops at the sunset date.

Imported articles fall outside authorisation entirely. A PVC article made outside the EU and coloured with lead chromate is not caught by Annex XIV entries 10 to 12; it is caught by the restriction on lead in PVC in Annex XVII entry 63, which applies to articles placed on the EU market whatever their origin. An Annex XIV substance also stays on the Candidate List, so the Article 33 communication duty and the SCIP notification still apply above 0.1 % w/w in an article.

How a Candidate List substance moves to Annex XIV#

A plastic additive reaches Annex XIV in four steps, and only the last one creates an obligation: identification on the Candidate List, an ECHA draft recommendation with a public consultation, a final ECHA recommendation, and a Commission amending regulation that fixes the entry's two dates. The four steps are set out below in the order they occur.

1. Identify the substance as a substance of very high concern and include it in the Candidate List.
2. Publish an ECHA draft recommendation for inclusion in Annex XIV and hold a public consultation on it.
3. Submit ECHA's final recommendation to the Commission.
4. Adopt a Commission amending regulation that adds the entry and sets its latest application date and sunset date.

Step 1 is the identification stage, and the 253 entries of the SVHC Candidate List are the pool every Annex XIV entry is drawn from, counted after the Candidate List update of 4 February 2026 (ECHA CHEM, checked 25 September 2026). Step 4 is the one that binds, and the additive entries on the list came from five amending regulations: (EU) No 143/2011, (EU) No 125/2012, (EU) 2017/999, (EU) 2020/171 and (EU) 2022/586.

A recommendation is not an inclusion. ECHA's 9th recommendation of 21 October 2019 covered 7 lead compounds used as PVC stabilizers, including dibasic lead phosphite, dibasic lead phthalate and dibasic lead stearate, and none of them was added to Annex XIV; lead in PVC was regulated by restriction instead, through Annex XVII entry 63. The most recent draft, ECHA's draft recommendation of 2 February 2026, was open for consultation until 2 May 2026. The route itself is unchanged in 2026, because the full REACH revision, which included polymer registration, was set aside by the Commission on 27 April 2026.

The 26 Plastic Additives on REACH Annex XIV#

The 26 plastic additives on REACH Annex XIV fall into five additive functions: 14 phthalate plasticizers, 4 benzotriazole UV absorbers, 3 flame retardants and phosphate plasticizers, 3 lead chromate pigments and 2 organotin heat stabilizers. The count includes every entry whose substance is dosed into a plastic for a plastics function and leaves out the two surfactant entries, 42 and 43.

Which of the 26 still matter to a compounder buying additives in 2026? The register answers that function by function, with both dates and the act behind each entry. Every entry that has its own page links from the table into the plastic additives database.

The table lists all 26 entries in the order of the five sections below, with both dates and the act that created each entry.

Table T2. The 26 plastic additives on REACH Annex XIV

"none recorded" means that our source library records no exempted use for that entry; it is not a statement that the entry has none. Only the four benzotriazole entries and the two DOTE entries are recorded with no exempted uses. ED HH and ED ENV = endocrine-disrupting properties for human health and for the environment under Article 57(f).

1. Phthalate plasticizers (14 entries)#

Fourteen Annex XIV entries are ortho-phthalate plasticizers, and four of them, DEHP, DBP, BBP and DIBP, are the reason most flexible-PVC compounders know the Authorisation List at all: their use in the EU has needed an authorisation since 21 February 2015. DEHP (entry 4), BBP (entry 5) and DBP (entry 6) entered Annex XIV through Regulation (EU) No 143/2011, DIBP (entry 7) through Regulation (EU) No 125/2012, and all four share a latest application date of 21 August 2013. The industry groups these four with the low-molecular-weight phthalates, the 3 to 6 backbone-carbon esters, and it is the low-molecular-weight phthalate plasticizers that Annex XIV caught.

The other ten entries are lower-volume ortho-phthalates added in two batches. Entries 33 to 39, from diisopentyl phthalate to n-pentyl-isopentyl phthalate, came through Regulation (EU) 2017/999 with a sunset date of 4 July 2020; entries 44 to 46, the dihexyl and di-C6-10 phthalates, came through Regulation (EU) 2020/171 with a sunset date of 27 February 2023. All 14 phthalate entries rest on reproductive toxicity under Article 57(c), as the consolidated Annex XIV of 22 June 2026 records.

Regulation (EU) 2021/2045, adopted on 23 November 2021 and published in OJ L 418 of 24 November 2021, added endocrine-disrupting properties under Article 57(f) to entries 4 to 7: for human health in all four, and for the environment as well in DEHP's entry 4 only. Annex XVII entry 51 has also limited DEHP, DBP, BBP and DIBP to 0.1 % by weight of plasticised material, individually or combined, in all articles since 7 July 2020. How entry 51 and the Annex XIV entries are mirrored in the US, Canada and Asia is set out in phthalate restrictions worldwide. DEHP in medical devices keeps its own dates, covered under the exemptions below.

2. Benzotriazole UV absorbers (4 entries)#

Four Annex XIV entries are benzotriazole UV absorbers, UV-328, UV-327, UV-350 and UV-320, and every EU use of them has needed an authorisation since 27 November 2023, with no exempted uses at all. Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/171 of 6 February 2020 created entries 51 (UV-328), 52 (UV-327), 53 (UV-350) and 54 (UV-320) with a common latest application date of 27 May 2022. UV-328 and UV-320 are listed as PBT and vPvB, UV-327 and UV-350 as vPvB only.

UV-328 is also controlled more widely than any Annex XIV entry can control it. The Stockholm Convention listed it in Annex A by decision SC-11/11 in 2023, and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/843 sets EU POPs limits of 100 mg/kg from 4 August 2025, 10 mg/kg from 4 August 2027 and 1 mg/kg from 4 August 2029, which apply to articles as well. UV-326 and UV-329 are on the Candidate List but not on Annex XIV; both are in the draft recommendation covered further down. The POPs timeline and the status of UV-326 and UV-329 are tracked on benzotriazole UV absorbers.

3. Flame retardants and a phosphate plasticizer (3 entries)#

Three Annex XIV entries are flame retardants or phosphate plasticizers: HBCDD, the former flame retardant of EPS and XPS insulation foam, TCEP, a chlorinated phosphate used in polyurethane, and trixylyl phosphate. HBCDD entered Annex XIV as entry 3 on 18 February 2011 through Regulation (EU) No 143/2011, listed as PBT, with a latest application date of 21 February 2014 and a sunset date of 21 August 2015; it is now also a persistent organic pollutant with a limit of 100 mg/kg under Regulation (EU) 2019/1021. TCEP, entry 13, shares the same two dates through Regulation (EU) No 125/2012 and is listed for reproductive toxicity; its legacy uses were as a flame retardant plasticizer in polyurethane, polyester resins and polyacrylates.

Trixylyl phosphate, entry 47, is the newest of the three: on the Candidate List since 16 December 2013 and added by Regulation (EU) 2020/171, it had a latest application date of 27 November 2021 and a sunset date of 27 May 2023. TCPP, which is not an SVHC, is a different chlorinated phosphate and carries no Annex XIV entry. Other flame retardants for plastics, from phosphorus chemistry to polymeric bromine, took over the uses of all three. The phosphorus and polymeric alternatives are compared on flame retardants for plastics.

4. Lead chromate pigments (3 entries)#

Three Annex XIV entries are lead chromate pigments, the lead chromate, lead sulfochromate yellow and lead chromate molybdate sulfate red once used to colour PVC and polyolefins, and their use in the EU has needed an authorisation since 21 May 2015. Lead chromate (7758-97-6) is entry 10, lead sulfochromate yellow, Pigment Yellow 34 or PY34 (1344-37-2), is entry 11, and lead chromate molybdate sulfate red, Pigment Red 104 or PR104 (12656-85-8), is entry 12. All three are listed as carcinogenic and toxic for reproduction, entered through Regulation (EU) No 125/2012 and had a latest application date of 21 November 2013. An authorisation granted for these pigments in 2016 was annulled by the General Court in 2019, as the authorisation section below explains.

Lead in PVC is now controlled by a second instrument as well. Lead chromate in PVC articles, made in the EU or imported, is caught by the restriction on lead in PVC under Annex XVII entry 63, which requires less than 0.1 % lead in PVC from 29 November 2024 and so reaches imported articles where Annex XIV does not.

5. Organotin heat stabilizers (2 entries)#

Two Annex XIV entries are organotin heat stabilizers for PVC, DOTE and its reaction mass with MOTE, and their sunset date of 1 May 2025 is the most recent one on the list for any plastic additive. DOTE (15571-58-1, EC 239-622-4) is entry 58 and the DOTE/MOTE reaction mass (64685-81-0) is entry 59, both listed for reproductive toxicity and both added by Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/586 of 8 April 2022, with a latest application date of 1 November 2023 and no exempted uses. Since 1 May 2025, EU use of DOTE has needed an authorisation or a pending application, and DOTE is the primary stabilizer for food and pharma-grade rigid PVC, such as blister and food film, sheet and bottles; its food-contact uses fall outside authorisation, as the exemptions section explains.

DOT compounds are also limited to 0.1 % tin by weight in listed consumer articles under Annex XVII entry 20, in force since 1 January 2012. Methyltin stabilizers are not Annex XIV entries and are not covered by entry 20 either, which says nothing about their hazard profile. The methyltin and other organotin grades that are not Annex XIV entries are compared on organotin stabilizers.

Alkylphenol ethoxylates (entries 42 and 43) are surfactants, not counted as additives#

Two more Annex XIV entries turn up whenever someone filters the list for plastics, octylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates, and they are surfactants rather than plastic additives, which is why this page counts 26 additive entries and not 28. Octylphenol ethoxylates (entry 42) and nonylphenol ethoxylates (entry 43) are listed for endocrine-disrupting properties in the environment, with a latest application date of 4 July 2019 and a sunset date of 4 January 2021 under Regulation (EU) 2017/999. They reach a plastic as emulsifier or antistatic residues, not as additives dosed for a plastics function. TNPP, the phosphite antioxidant whose Candidate List entry concerns TNPP containing 0.1 % or more 4-nonylphenol, is not on Annex XIV (ECHA CHEM, 22 September 2026).

Annex XIV Sunset Dates for Plastic Additives: 2015 to 2030#

Plastic additives on Annex XIV carry nine sunset dates: eight of them passed between 21 February 2015 and 1 May 2025, and the only additive sunset still ahead is 1 July 2030, for DEHP in medical devices. The first three fell in 2015, when DEHP, BBP, DBP and DIBP reached their sunset on 21 February, the lead chromate pigments on 21 May and HBCDD and TCEP on 21 August. The other five passed between 4 July 2020 and 1 May 2025, as the lower-volume phthalates, trixylyl phosphate, the benzotriazoles and DOTE came due.

The table puts every additive sunset date in order, with the entries that reached it.

Table T3. Annex XIV sunset dates for plastic additives, in chronological order

A passed sunset date ends unauthorised use of the substance in the EU; it does not reach back into articles that already exist. A PVC profile coloured with lead chromate before 21 May 2015, or a polyolefin part stabilised with UV-328 before 27 November 2023, is governed by the article rules: the Candidate List duties above 0.1 % w/w, the Annex XVII restrictions and, for UV-328 and HBCDD, the POPs limits. Those are the rules that decide what a recycler or an importer may place on the market, and the comparison section further down names the number each one sets.

Which Uses of Annex XIV Additives Are Exempt from Authorisation?#

Four exemptions or separate dates apply to the 26 additive entries, and all of them sit in the phthalate and organotin entries: the immediate packaging of medicinal products, DEHP in medical devices, the 2021 endocrine amendment dates and the food-contact uses of DOTE. Each one is tied to a named entry, and none of them is a general exemption from REACH authorisation. The four are listed below.

• Immediate packaging of medicinal products: exempt from authorisation in entries 4, 5 and 6 (DEHP, BBP and DBP), as set by Regulation (EU) No 143/2011.
• DEHP in medical devices: separate dates for entry 4 under Regulation (EU) 2023/2482, set out in the next section.
• Endocrine amendment dates for entries 4 to 7: two further dates set by Regulation (EU) 2021/2045, given below.
• Food-contact uses of DOTE: outside authorisation under Article 56(5)(b) for entries 58 and 59.

When Regulation (EU) 2021/2045 added the endocrine grounds to these four phthalate entries, it set two further dates, 14 June 2023 and 14 December 2024, for uses in food contact materials, in the immediate packaging of medicinal products and in mixtures containing between 0.1 and 0.3 % of the phthalate. The benzotriazole entries (51 to 54) and the DOTE entries (58 and 59) are recorded with no exempted uses at all, so every use of them, apart from the food-contact uses of DOTE, needs an authorisation after the sunset date.

DEHP in medical devices: latest application date 1 January 2029, sunset 1 July 2030#

DEHP in medical devices is the one additive use on Annex XIV whose sunset date is still ahead: Regulation (EU) 2023/2482 set its latest application date at 1 January 2029 and its sunset at 1 July 2030. The two dates cover DEHP uses in medical devices within the scope of Regulations (EU) 2017/745 and 2017/746, and they replace the earlier dates of 27 November 2023 (latest application date) and 27 May 2025 (sunset) that Regulation (EU) 2021/2045 had set. On 22 September 2026, it was the only additive authorisation date still in the future. Blood bags are the main remaining medical use of DEHP, and the alternatives named for them are DINCH, BTHC, TOTM and DEHT.

Plastic additives in medical devices are also governed by a separate rule set. Regulation (EU) 2017/745, Annex I section 10.4, requires justification and labelling where a CMR 1A or 1B or endocrine-disrupting substance exceeds 0.1 % w/w in an invasive or fluid-contact device, and Annex XVII entry 51 exempts medical devices from its phthalate limit. MDR section 10.4, biocompatibility testing and the DEHP-free alternatives are covered on plastic additives in medical devices.

Food-contact uses: why DOTE in PVC packaging needs no authorisation#

DOTE used in PVC food packaging needs no REACH authorisation, because DOTE is on Annex XIV for reproductive toxicity only and its food-contact uses fall outside authorisation under Article 56(5)(b); the migration limits of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 govern them instead. This applies to DOTE and the DOTE/MOTE reaction mass as recorded for entries 58 and 59, and this page does not extend it to any other Annex XIV entry: the four phthalate entries carry endocrine grounds and their own 2021/2045 dates.

Food-contact DOTE authorisation questions therefore turn into migration questions. Under Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, DOTE is FCM 619 in group restriction 10 (di-n-octyltins), with an SML(T) of 0.006 mg/kg expressed as tin, and MOTE is FCM 657 in group restriction 11 (mono-n-octyltins), with an SML(T) of 1.2 mg/kg as tin. Every other EU use of DOTE after 1 May 2025 needs an authorisation or a pending application. The organotin rules side by side, entry 20, the DOTE entries and the tin SMLs, are on DOTE authorisation and food-contact limits.

How Does REACH Authorisation Work for a Plastic Additive?#

A REACH authorisation is a Commission decision that lets a named company keep using an Annex XIV substance for a specific use after the sunset date; it is a permission for one use, not an approval of the substance. The decision covers the use described in the application and nothing wider, so a plasticizer authorised for one application is still unauthorised in every other. It can also be challenged and annulled in court after it is granted, as the lead chromate case shows. Authorisation applies to uses inside the EU; an article made outside the EU and imported is not covered by it, and only restrictions and the POPs limits reach such an article.

Who has to apply, and what a pending application allows#

The company that wants to keep a use after the sunset date has to apply before the latest application date, and DOTE shows exactly what that means: since 1 May 2025, its EU use needs either a granted authorisation or an application that was filed in time and is still pending. An application filed before the latest application date, 1 November 2023 for DOTE, keeps the use lawful while the decision is outstanding. A use with no application behind it stops at the sunset date.

Authorisation is use-specific, so the position of each compounder depends on the uses applied for. A compounder that did not apply for its use, or whose supplier's application did not cover that use, stops the use at the sunset date. The importer of a finished article is outside authorisation altogether, which is why the imported article is controlled through restrictions instead. For most of the 26 additive entries, the practical outcome was substitution rather than applications, and the replacements are named in the closing section of this page.

What an authorisation application contains#

An authorisation application is judged use by use, so the same additive can be authorised for one application and not for another, and the decision itself can be challenged in court after it is granted. The application describes the uses the applicant wants to continue, and the Commission decides on each of them separately. ECHA documents the alternatives to substances subject to authorisation in its portal "Main alternatives to harmful substances subject to REACH authorisation", which collects the substitution evidence that applications and third parties have produced. The statutory contents of an application and the steps of the committee review are set out in Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and are not summarised here until our source library holds them with their article numbers. What happens when an authorisation is granted and then contested?

Lead chromate pigments: the authorisation that was granted and then annulled#

Lead chromate pigments are the one plastic additive on Annex XIV whose authorisation was granted and then annulled: the Commission authorised uses in 2016, the General Court annulled that decision on 7 March 2019, and the Court of Justice dismissed the appeal on 25 February 2021. The 2016 authorisation was granted to DCC Maastricht for uses of the lead chromate pigments in entries 10 to 12, whose sunset date had passed on 21 May 2015. Sweden challenged it, and the General Court annulled it in case T-837/16, Sweden v Commission; the Commission's appeal failed in case C-389/19 P.

The net effect is that no valid authorisation exists for the EU manufacture or use of these pigments, and lead chromate in PVC articles, EU-made or imported, remains caught by Annex XVII entry 63 at below 0.1 % lead from 29 November 2024. Lead-free inorganic pigments replace them: bismuth vanadate (PY184) is recorded as the lead-free replacement for lead chromate yellows. Bismuth vanadate and the other inorganic pigments that took over the yellow shades are compared separately.

Which Plastic Additives Could Be Added to Annex XIV Next?#

Three plastic additives are proposed for Annex XIV in ECHA's draft recommendation of 2 February 2026, the benzotriazole UV absorbers UV-326 and UV-329 and the flame retardant triphenyl phosphate, and none of them needs an authorisation yet. The draft names a fourth substance, photoinitiator 379, which cures UV-cured inks and coatings and sits outside the plastics border of this reference. The public consultation closed on 2 May 2026, and no final recommendation or amending regulation existed on 22 September 2026.

The four substances in ECHA's draft recommendation are listed below, with their Candidate List status.

Table T5. ECHA's draft recommendation of 2 February 2026

A draft recommendation is a proposal, not a forecast, as the 2019 lead recommendation showed, so the three proposed additives keep their Candidate List duties and nothing more until the Commission adopts an amending regulation. No latest application date or sunset date exists for them, and none is given here. When this page was checked against ECHA CHEM again on 24 October 2026, the Authorisation List still held 59 entries and the UV-329 case still stood at the end of the consultation on the draft recommendation, dated 2 May 2026.

What was the most recent change to Annex XIV for plastic additives?#

The most recent change to Annex XIV that affects a plastic additive is Regulation (EU) 2023/2482, which moved the DEHP medical-device dates to 1 January 2029 and 1 July 2030; the most recent additive entries are DOTE and its reaction mass, added by Regulation (EU) 2022/586 of 8 April 2022. The draft recommendation of 2 February 2026 is not yet a change, because only an amending regulation alters the annex. Annex XIV held 59 entries on 22 September 2026, and the 26 additive entries have stood at that count since entries 58 and 59 were created in 2022.

Download the 26 Annex XIV additive entries in Table T2 as a CSV file, verified 22 September 2026, for use in a supplier questionnaire or an internal register.

Annex XIV, Annex XVII, POPs and RoHS: Which Rule Controls Each Additive Today?#

For most Annex XIV additives, the binding number in a 2026 specification no longer comes from Annex XIV: Annex XVII entry 51, the POPs Regulation, RoHS and Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 set the limits that a compound or an imported article has to meet. Annex XIV gives no concentration limit at all; it controls uses. A restriction forbids or limits a use directly, for every company, and reaches articles placed on the EU market, including imports, which is why REACH Annex XVII restrictions, not Annex XIV, decide what an imported article may contain.

The pattern holds across all five additive functions: the four high-volume phthalates are held by entry 51, RoHS and the food-contact SMLs of Regulation (EU) 2023/1442 (DIBP is not an authorised food-contact additive at all), UV-328 and HBCDD by POPs limits, the lead chromate pigments by the lead-in-PVC limit, DOTE by entry 20 and a tin SML, and TCEP by the toy limit of Directive 2014/79/EU.

The table names, for each additive group on Annex XIV, the other instruments that set a numeric limit.

Table T4. Which rule controls each Annex XIV additive today

"(in force)" marks a limit for which our source library records no single start date.

The same substances therefore appear on three or four EU lists at once, and the strictest of them decides the specification.

How Do You Check a Plastic Compound Against Annex XIV?#

Checking a plastic compound against Annex XIV takes six steps, and the first is a formulation task rather than a legal one: list every intentionally added substance by CAS number, including everything a masterbatch carries in. The documentation behind the check is the supplier's written statement and the formulation data, the same evidence used for a Candidate List check. The six steps are listed below in the order they are run.

1. List every intentionally added substance by CAS number, including what a masterbatch or pre-blend carries in.
2. Match each CAS number against the 59 Annex XIV entries as published on ECHA CHEM on the day of the check, and against ECHA's draft recommendation of 2 February 2026.
3. Check, for each match, the sunset date and whether the use falls under a recorded exemption: immediate packaging of medicinal products for entries 4 to 6, DEHP in medical devices until 1 July 2030, or the food-contact uses of DOTE.
4. Confirm, for a use that is not exempt and whose sunset date has passed, that a granted authorisation or a pending application covers that exact use, or stop the use.
5. Check the same substance against the instruments in Table T4, because for imported articles those limits, not Annex XIV, apply.
6. Record the check date and the Annex XIV version, and re-run the check after every Annex XIV amendment and every Candidate List update.

Steps 2 and 5 are where a regulatory status check pays off, because one substance can sit on four EU lists at once. A single additive can be checked against REACH, FDA and EU 10/2011 lists with the additive regulatory status checker. A compound that passes all six steps still carries the Candidate List duties for any Annex XIV substance above 0.1 % w/w in the finished article.

Why Most Annex XIV Plastic Additives Left the EU Market Instead of Being Authorised#

For most Annex XIV plastic additives, substitution, not authorisation, was the outcome, because the compounders who used them had replacements that were not on the Candidate List, while an authorisation would have covered one use at a time and could still be challenged in court. The register supports that reading. Of the 26 additive entries, only DEHP in medical devices still has a sunset date ahead; the one additive authorisation recorded here, for the lead chromate pigments, was annulled; the benzotriazoles and DOTE were listed with no exempted uses; and for the phthalates, UV-328 and HBCDD a later restriction or POPs limit now applies on top of the entry. Annex XIV is one layer of the five described in plastic additive regulations.

What replaced the Annex XIV additives#

Every high-volume additive on Annex XIV has a replacement that is not on the Candidate List: DINP, DIDP, DOTP, DINCH and TOTM for the phthalates, bismuth vanadate and organic yellows for lead chromate, and polymeric brominated flame retardants for HBCDD. None is described here as safe, only as not on the Candidate List. DINP and DIDP are ortho-phthalates themselves and are restricted in mouthable toys and childcare articles under Annex XVII entry 52, with a group SML of 1.8 mg/kg under Regulation (EU) No 10/2011, while DOTP and DINCH are non-phthalate plasticizers, TOTM a trimellitate.

The four replacement routes by function are listed below.

• Phthalates: DINP, DIDP, DOTP, DINCH and TOTM in flexible PVC.
• Benzotriazole UV absorbers: other benzotriazoles and HALS for UV-328; Tinuvin 928 is positioned by its makers as a non-SVHC replacement for UV-328, mainly in coatings.
• Lead chromate pigments: bismuth vanadate (PY184), nickel antimony titanium yellow (PY53), chrome antimony titanium buff (PBr24), benzimidazolone and isoindolinone yellows, and DPP reds and oranges.
• HBCDD: the brominated butadiene-styrene block copolymer known as PolyFR, a polymeric brominated flame retardant that is not an SVHC.

HBCDD's replacement in insulation foam is a polymer rather than a small molecule. PolyFR is one of the polymeric flame retardants that replaced HBCDD in EPS and XPS.

Annex XIV additives in recycled plastic and imported articles#

Annex XIV additives that nobody buys any more still reach compounders through recyclate and imported articles, and there the binding limits come from restrictions and the POPs Regulation, because an authorisation requirement does not travel with the article. DEHP and the other phthalates return in flexible PVC, lead chromate pigments in coloured PVC, and HBCDD in EPS and XPS insulation. Entry 51 sets the phthalate limit; entry 63 sets the lead limit, with recovered rigid PVC allowed up to 1.5 % lead until 28 May 2033; and HBCDD is capped at 100 mg/kg, with an exemption for EPS and XPS in buildings installed before 21 February 2018. Which of them survive reprocessing is covered in legacy additives in recycled plastic.

Annex XIV entries outside plastics, and UK REACH#

Thirty-one of the 59 Annex XIV entries are not plastic additives at all, and the ones most often mistaken for additives are MOCA, a polyurethane curing agent on the list as entry 27, and the two alkylphenol ethoxylate surfactants. The arithmetic is 59 entries minus 26 additive entries minus 2 surfactant entries, which leaves 31. MOCA had a latest application date of 22 May 2016 and a sunset date of 22 November 2017, and curing agents sit outside this reference's plastics-additive border; photoinitiator 379 in the 2026 draft is likewise an ink and coating chemical. This page covers EU REACH; the United Kingdom keeps its own authorisation list (Annex 14) under UK REACH, which this page does not track.