The European Commission has launched the evaluation process of the Cosmetics Regulation, which is carried out as part of the REFIT Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme. The result of the evaluation is to indicate which elements and areas of the regulation work well and which need to be changed and adapted to changes related to the Green Deal or the digital and green transformation, as well as whether the current content of the regulation fulfills its role.
Areas of this evaluation are related to:
- scope of the regulation,
- correctness of the definitions contained in the text,
- risk assessment of ingredients with potentially higher risk and application of a general approach to risk,
- labelling of cosmetic products,
- possibility of reducing administrative burdens and simplifying regulations,
- consistency with other regulations, including REACH and CLP,
- international trade and industry competitiveness.
The public consultation will last 4 weeks till 21 March 2025 and will end with the publication of the final report, which will indicate whether a change in the content of the Cosmetics Regulation is necessary. If the results indicate the need for a change, the European Commission will proceed to revise the content of the Cosmetics Regulation.
The current assessment is the first full review of the Cosmetics Regulation since 2013 and aims to indicate whether additional safety measures are needed to protect people from potentially hazardous ingredients.
Cosmetics Regulation revision status:
We would like to remind that the draft revision to the Cosmetics Regulation has already been discussed since 2022, and the finalization of the draft was supposed to take place in 2024, but the Commission decided to suspend work on the revision of the regulation and in October 2024 launched the evaluation process under the REFIT program, which is expected to end in 2026. Only after the results of this evaluation will the Commission decide whether to restart the process of amending the content of the Cosmetics Regulation.
Link to public consultation: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14433-Cosmetic-Products-Regulation-evaluation_en
Link to Ekotox Cosmetics webpages: https://ekotox.eu/cosmetics-2/