Review of the Year
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European Cosmetic Products Regulation
July 2015 marked the second anniversary of the
implementation of the EU Cosmetics Regulation
((EC) No.1223/2009), which replaced the 1976 Cosmetics
Directive. Whilst the Regulation was intended to harmonise
the requirements that ensure human safety and remove
technical barriers to trade by replacing all national cosmetics
regulations, differences between interpretations in the
different Member States still exist. Cosmetics Europe,
CTPA and the other European national associations have
been actively engaging the Members States to promote
harmonisation throughout the EU.
Claims
In 2016 the European Commission must write a report for the
European Parliament regarding the use of cosmetics claims on
the basis of the common criteria. In anticipation of the report,
in 2015 the European Advertising Standards Alliance carried
out a survey of cosmetics advertisements across five countries
on behalf of Cosmetics Europe.
Cosmetics Europe also undertook a second survey of its
membership which focussed on inspections due to claims.
Information collected from the surveys will be shared with
the European Commission as part of a white paper being
submitted by Cosmetics Europe, the aim of which is to
place the common criteria into their proper context as being
just one part of a comprehensive system regulating advertising
and claims.
Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP)
The Cosmetics Regulation introduced a Europe-wide
centralised notification system to hold information about
every single cosmetic product on the European market.
Enforcement authorities and Poisons Centres in each EU
country may access the system directly to obtain the
information they need.
The European Commission routinely publishes updates
to the CPNP and a new release was added in 2015.
The release included improvements intended for Poison
Information Centres and Competent Authorities, as well
as an amendment for Responsible Persons where European
Economic Area (EEA) countries were added as an option for
entering the country of origin for imported products.
CTPA follows developments closely and continues
to provide expert help to its members on the CPNP.
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