Apply for protection of an Inventory listing as confidential business information

You can apply if you have an assessment certificate for a chemical and either 1 or 2 apply:

1. because your chemical is due to be added to the Inventory and you do not want the chemical to be publicly searchable on the Inventory
2. your chemical is already confidentially listed on the Inventory and you wish to continue this.

If we approve your application, your chemical’s name and CAS number will be confidential and not searchable on our website for 5 years. You can apply for continued protection after 5 years.

Who can apply

Any holder of a current assessment certificate and anyone who is an approved holder of confidence for the chemical.

When you can apply

You can only apply after you receive an email from us to let you know that your chemical is due for listing on the Inventory or your chemical's CBI protection is due for review. Our email will contain instructions and a link for you to apply. You must submit your CBI application within 20 working days of the email’s date. A fee applies.

If there are multiple assessment certificates for the same chemical, we list on the Inventory using the expiry date of the first assessment certificate. We notify all certificate holders to advise the chemical will be listed and all certificate holders can apply for protection of CBI.

Once we list on the Inventory, all assessment certificates for the chemical cease.

How to apply and how we assess your application

Once you’ve received our email, you can apply online through AICIS Business Services. We will process your application after we receive payment.

When making our decision, we must apply a statutory test that weighs up commercial and public interests.

You will need to provide information to prove that:

• you have a commercial interest and it’s reasonable to expect that if we publish certain information, your commercial interests could be substantially prejudiced (harmed)
• this commercial prejudice outweighs the public interest in having access to this information

We make decisions on a case-by-case basis. You should submit whatever reasons and data you have and any other evidence you think is relevant.

Read our statutory test guidance

Information you must provide

• the chemical assessment details
• payment details (who is paying the invoice)
• supporting information to help us apply our statutory test

If you’re the assessment certificate holder/approved holder of confidence, you can either provide this information yourself or nominate another party to provide it.

If you nominate another party to submit information we need to assess your application, they can be Australian or international but must be signed up to AICIS Business Services as a chemical data provider before you apply.

In the application form you’ll need to give us the following details of your chemical data provider’s AICIS Business Services account:

• business ID number (for example, NIC12345)
• contact person’s first name
• contact person’s last name

You must contact your chemical data provider and ask for these details — we cannot give you this information. Once you’ve entered their details, we’ll contact them by email and ask them to submit the information through AICIS Business Services.

After you submit your application

We’ll contact you by email if we need more information and again when we have processed your application. You’ll be able to track and view the outcome of your application online through AICIS Business Services.

While we review your CBI application, the chemical stays under ‘certificate status’. We will not add it to the Inventory until we make a decision.

If your application is successful, your chemical’s Inventory listing will be protected as CBI for 5 years. This means that your chemical’s CAS name and CAS number will not be searchable on the Inventory on our website.

If we reject your application, we will publish the relevant information about your introduction.

If you do not agree with our decision, you may ask us to reconsider. You must make your request in writing to the Executive Director within 20 working days. You must outline reasons for requesting the reconsideration and you can attach supporting information.

If you are disagree with the outcome of our reconsideration, you can submit an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of our reconsidered decision. For information about the appeal process, please refer to the AAT website.

Fees

We cannot process the application until the fee is paid. If you withdraw your application after you’ve submitted it, we will contact you if you're eligible for a refund.