Second Public Consultation on REACH PFAS Proposal – ECHA Guidance for Respondents

Today, ECHA held a webinar to help industry prepare for the second public consultation on the Universal PFAS REACH restriction proposal. The recording is available here, and the slides are accessible here. A document with questions and answers will be published shortly on the same page.

By way of background, the first public consultation was held in 2023, and it related to the original proposal published in March 2023. This original proposal was vitiated by data gaps such as missing uses, so it is not surprising that the first public consultation brought more than 5,000 substantial comments. These comments were recently addressed in the amended PFAS proposal (so-called ‘Background Document’) that was published on August 20, 2025. This amended proposal includes several new use sectors (eight in total) and several new proposed exemptions for essential uses, including industrial machinery. Importantly, ECHA announced that the eight new use sectors will not be assessed by ECHA. The evaluation will be left for the European Commission. This also means that these sectors (including relevant new exemptions) will not be subject to the second public consultation (see, however, below).

ECHA’s Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis (SEAC) and Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) are now preparing their respective opinions. The SEAC Opinion will be published first as a draft, and this draft will be subject to the second public consultation. This public consultation is expected to start by the end of March 2026, and it will last for 60 days.

The PFAS restriction proposal is particularly broad as it covers all PFAS (incl. fluoropolymers and incl. residues) and all uses (in products but also in the manufacturing equipment). The second public consultation will be relevant for anybody whose use is not covered by any proposed exemption, or the exemption is granted for an insufficient time. Even if the exemption is granted for 13.5 years (the maximum time), it may not give sufficient time to test the alternative (if at all available), to implement it, and to potentially recertify the product with the alternative.

Importantly, companies wishing to comment should start preparing comments as soon as possible, given that the public consultation will be rather short (60 days).

Turning now to the content of the second public consultation. This consultation will differ from the first one, as it will be more narrowly focused on specific uses and organized in a survey format. Importantly, the consultation will be limited to the 14 original use sectors covered by the original proposal (as stated above, the eight new sectors will not be assessed and will be left for the Commission).

However, during today's webinar, ECHA stated that the interested parties are nonetheless invited to provide comments on any aspects of the SEAC evaluation, including the eight additional sectors, if they wish to do so. Therefore, we strongly encourage industry to also submit comments on these eight uses in the ‘general’ or ‘free text’ sections of the survey.

ECHA further specified that the second public consultation will be based on choice-based questions, numerical questions, and free text. Contrary to the first public consultation, no attachments, links, or tables will be allowed.

The consultation will be structured as follows:

• A general survey section, with response length limits that vary by question, up to 5,000 characters.
• Sector-specific surveys, containing more detailed questions on the 14 original sectors evaluated by SEAC.

Importantly, ECHA is still going to publish two guidance documents: 1) a survey guidance document, which will be published mid-December and 2) a use mapping guidance, which will be published in three stages. Stage 1 will be published after the webinar, Stage 2 by mid-December, and Stage 3, which will provide further details on the descriptions of the uses evaluated by SEAC, will only be published before the beginning of the consultation in March 2026.

ECHA specified that the input should provide quantitative detail. This is in line with our experience from the first PFAS public consultation.

Many contributions consisted mainly of short, general submissions with broad statements not supported by data. Industry should focus on providing specific, quantified data that can be referenced in the ECHA Committees’ opinions to support exemption requests. In addition, industry should ensure that any requested exemptions are realistic—in terms of both scope and timing—and are backed by a solid analysis of alternatives.

Finally, ECHA confirmed that it will be possible to request confidentiality for either the identity of the submitter or the content of the contribution. However, anonymized contributions will not be considered. That said, based on our experience from previous consultations, if a comment is submitted by a law firm on behalf of an unnamed client, it is generally not treated as an anonymous contribution.

Keller and Heckman has extensive experience assisting companies in preparing and submitting comments for public consultations, including, of course, those related to the PFAS restriction.

If you have any questions or wish to have our support in submitting comments to the second public consultation, please feel free to contact Ales Bartl (bartl@khlaw.com) or your existing contact at Keller and Heckman LLP.