Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 2 U.K. Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation:

1.

‘Detergent’ means any substance or [F1 mixture] containing soaps and/or other surfactants intended for washing and cleaning processes. Detergents may be in any form (liquid, powder, paste, bar, cake, moulded piece, shape, etc.) and marketed for or used in household, or institutional or industrial purposes.

Other products to be considered as detergents are:

• ‘Auxiliary washing [F1 mixture]’, intended for soaking (pre-washing), rinsing or bleaching clothes, household linen, etc.;

• ‘Laundry fabric-softener’, intended to modify the feel of fabrics in processes which are to complement the washing of fabrics;

• ‘Cleaning [F1 mixture]’, intended for domestic all purposes cleaners and/or other cleaning of surfaces (e.g.: materials, products, machinery, mechanical appliances, means of transport and associated equipment, instruments, apparatus, etc.);

• ‘Other cleaning and washing [F1 mixtures]’, intended for any other washing and cleaning processes.

1a.

[F2 ‘ Consumer laundry detergent ’ means a detergent for laundry placed on the market for use by non-professionals, including in public laundrettes.

1b.

‘ Consumer automatic dishwasher detergent ’ means a detergent placed on the market for use in automatic dishwashers by non-professionals.]

2.

‘Washing’ means the cleaning of laundry, fabrics, dishes and other hard surfaces.

3.

[F3 ‘ Cleaning ’ means the process by which an undesirable deposit is dislodged from a substrate or from within a substrate and brought into a state of solution or dispersion.]

4.

‘Substance’ means chemical elements and their compounds in the natural state or obtained by any production process, including any additive necessary to preserve the stability of the products and any impurity deriving from the process used, but excluding any solvent which may be separated without affecting the stability of the substance or changing its composition.

5.

‘[F1 Mixture]’ means a mixture or solution composed of two or more substances.

6.

‘Surfactant’ means any organic substance and/or [F1 mixture] used in detergents, which has surface-active properties and which consists of one or more hydrophilic and one or more hydrophobic groups of such a nature and size that it is capable of reducing the surface tension of water, and of forming spreading or adsorption monolayers at the water-air interface, and of forming emulsions and/or microemulsions and/or micelles, and of adsorption at water-solid interfaces.

7.

‘Primary biodegradation’ means the structural change (transformation) of a surfactant by micro-organisms resulting in the loss of its surface-active properties due to the degradation of the parent substance and consequential loss of the surface-active property as measured by test methods listed in Annex II.

8.

‘Ultimate aerobic biodegradation’ means the level of biodegradation achieved when the surfactant is totally used by micro-organisms in the presence of oxygen resulting in its breakdown to carbon dioxide, water and mineral salts of any other elements present (mineralisation), as measured by test methods listed in Annex III, and new microbial cellular constituents (biomass).

9.

[F3 ‘ Placing on the market ’ means the first making available on the Union market. Import into the Union customs territory shall be deemed to be placing on the market.

9a.

‘ Making available on the market ’ means any supply for distribution, consumption or use on the Union market in the course of a commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of charge.]

10.

‘Manufacturer’ means the natural or legal person responsible for placing a detergent or a surfactant for a detergent on the market; in particular, a producer, an importer, a packager working for his own account, or any person changing the characteristics of a detergent or of a surfactant for a detergent, or creating or changing the labelling thereof, shall be deemed to be a manufacturer. A distributor who does not change the characteristics, labelling or packaging of a detergent, or of a surfactant for a detergent, shall not be deemed to be a manufacturer, except where he acts as an importer.

11.

‘Medical personnel’ means a registered medical practitioner, or a person working under the direction of a registered medical practitioner, acting to provide patient care, make a diagnosis or administer treatment, and who is bound by professional confidentiality.

12.

‘Industrial and institutional detergent’ means a detergent for washing and cleaning outside the domestic sphere, carried out by specialised personnel using specific products.

Textual Amendments

F1 Substituted by Regulation (EC) No 1336/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 in order to adapt it to Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (Text with EEA relevance).

F2 Inserted by Regulation (EU) No 259/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 amending Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 as regards the use of phosphates and other phosphorus compounds in consumer laundry detergents and consumer automatic dishwasher detergents (Text with EEA relevance).

F3 Substituted by Regulation (EU) No 259/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2012 amending Regulation (EC) No 648/2004 as regards the use of phosphates and other phosphorus compounds in consumer laundry detergents and consumer automatic dishwasher detergents (Text with EEA relevance).