On June 13th and 14th2019, the Cosmetics Europe Annual Assembly Meeting took place in Brussels, Belgium and various topics were covered. Some of these topics are of great importance for the industry as the decisions that will be taken by the European Commission regarding them will affect how manufacturers prepare their cosmetic products to be placed on the European market.
- Following the SCCS opinion issued in 2012, there are ongoing discussions about increasing the number of contact allergens that are currently mentioned on the cosmetic products labelling from 26 substances to 87. This will have a significant impact on the label. The possibility of e-labelling is on the table and the users’ understandings and approach when purchasing their cosmetic products is being discussed. Within these lines, the European cosmetics Responsible Person Association (ERPA) has created a questionnaire which will be running until the 15thof September allowing the industry to express their opinion on how to handle the labelling of the allergens. You may access the questionnaire and have your say here.
- Online sales have been in the last years and continue to be an increasingly common way through which cosmetic products are made available and purchased worldwide. This is creating certain regulatory challenges and raising questions, such as Who is the Responsible Person? How is compliancy with 1223/2009/EC ensured? An interesting discussion between Ebay representative and the Belgian Authorities indicated that though many steps are being taken, the vigilance of the buyer is very important and whenever a product appears not to be complaint or leads to any undesirable effects, making a complaint towards the website from where it was purchased or the authorities is highly recommended.
- Definitely an interesting topic was the discussion about the Omnibus Act. The European Commission is changing the way ingredients – classified as Carcinogenic, Mutagenic and Reprotoxic (CMR) by the Classification Labelling and Packaging (CLP) Regulation of 2008 (EC 1272/2008) – are entering the Annex II {List of substances prohibited in cosmetic products, of the European Cosmetics Regulation}. Through the Omnibus Acts, the timing for the update of these substances within the Annex II has shorten to 15 months and impacted the speed with which cosmetic manufacturers need to revise their formulation and update or even re-do their Product Information Files (PIF). The last Omnibus Act Regulation 832/2019 published on the 23rdof May 2019 had a considerable impact due to the large number of substances classified as CMRs, some of which commonly used in cosmetic products formulations like D4 (Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane, CAS 556-67-2). The Commission informed that a new Omnibus Act is to be published this year.
Luminita Pascanu
EPO, QMS Department
September 5, 2019
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