Article 61: Transitional provisions

1.  Until 1 December 2010, substances shall be classified, labelled and packaged in accordance with Directive 67/548/EEC.
Until 1 June 2015, mixtures shall be classified, labelled and packaged in accordance with Directive 1999/45/EC.
2.  By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 62 of this Regulation and in addition to the requirements of paragraph 1 of this Article, substances and mixtures may, before 1 December 2010 and 1 June 2015 respectively, be classified, labelled and packaged in accordance with this Regulation. In that case, the provisions on labelling and packaging in Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC shall not apply.
3.  From 1 December 2010 until 1 June 2015, substances shall be classified in accordance with both Directive 67/548/EEC and this Regulation. They shall be labelled and packaged in accordance with this Regulation.
4.  By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 62 of this Regulation, substances classified, labelled and packaged in accordance with Directive 67/548/EEC and already placed on the market before 1 December 2010, are not required to be relabelled and repackaged in accordance with this Regulation until 1 December 2012.
By way of derogation from the second subparagraph of Article 62 of this Regulation, mixtures classified, labelled and packaged in accordance with Directive 1999/45/EC and already placed on the market before 1 June 2015 are not required to be relabelled and repackaged in accordance with this Regulation until 1 June 2017.
5.  Where a substance or mixture has been classified in accordance with Directive 67/548/EEC or 1999/45/EC before 1 December 2010 or 1 June 2015 respectively, manufacturers, importers and downstream users may amend the classification of the substance or mixture using the conversion table in Annex VII to this Regulation.
6.  Until 1 December 2011 a Member State may maintain any existing and more stringent classification and labelling of substances entered into Part 3 of Annex VI to this Regulation, provided that these classifications and labelling elements have been notified to the Commission in accordance with the safeguard clause in Directive 67/548/EEC before 20 January 2009 and that the Member State submits a proposal for harmonised classification and labelling containing these classifications and labelling elements to the Agency in accordance with Article 37(1) of this Regulation by 1 June 2009.
It is a precondition that a decision on the proposed classification and labelling by the Commission in accordance with the safeguard clause of Directive 67/548/EEC has not yet been taken before 20 January 2009.
If the proposed harmonised classification and labelling submitted under the first subparagraph is not included or is included in an amended form in Part 3 of Annex VI in accordance with Article 37(5), the exemption in the first subparagraph of this paragraph is no longer valid.