IAS 38 — Compliance costs for REACH

Date recorded:

REACH is an EU regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals.

The IFRIC considered a request that it provide guidance on the treatment of costs incurred to comply with the requirements of the European Commission Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The Regulation came into force in part on 1 June 2007, is binding immediately on Member States, and companies have begun to account for the first costs incurred to comply.

The staff noted that they had not completed their information gathering and analysis of this issue, but that their preliminary assessment was to recommend tentatively adding the issue to the agenda. IFRIC members agreed, noting that the retrospective cost of new regulation was a generic issue faced by entities in a variety of jurisdictions. The staff noted that scoping the issue would be critical, and that the costs of implementing the REACH Regulation could be used as examples, rather than scope the issue to address REACH specifically.

The staff will return with scope recommendations at the September 2008 IFRIC meeting.

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