EU: New cosmetic regulation in force

The new EU Cosmetics Regulation, which was adopted in 2009, went into complete action on 11 July 2013. The full Commission Regulation (EU) No 655/2013 that lays down common criteria for the justification of claims in relation to cosmetic products can be viewed here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/.
 

More than 500 million consumers on the EU market will be served by this single, harmonized piece of legislation, which is directly applicable in all Member States. The new regulation has product safety, as well as at consumer and animal protection, as its main focus. It provides more accurate definitions of existing legal provisions, reproduces the previous requirements and adds new one, Premium Beauty News reports.

Some of the main changes are:

Manufacturers need to follow specific requirements in the preparation of a product safety report before product placing on the market.
A responsible person has to be introduced.
All cosmetic products placed on the EU market will be notified centralized via the EU Cosmetic Products Notification Portal.
Serious undesirable effects will have to be notified to competent national authorities.
Nanomaterials must be labeled in the list of ingredients with the word “nano”. 

In addition, the new Commission Regulation adopted sets out common criteria for cosmetic claims: legal compliance, truthfulness, evidential support, honesty, fairness and informed decision making. More information is available here: Premium Beauty News