During the 20th Perfumes & Cosmetics Congress, which took place in Chartres on November 23 and 24, 2022, Ambroise Pascal and Lucie Vignelongue, from the DGCCRF, presented an overview of the latest actions of their services in the framework of cosmetics market surveillance and unveiled their investigation themes for 2023.
Before going into the details of the checks carried out in 2021 and 2022, Ambroise Pascal reminded the audience that the DGCCRF’s actions also concern online sales as well as products from Responsible Persons located outside France, but who sell their products on the French market. “This leads us to plan both an online sales component in our classic investigations, and specific investigations into online sales, particularly on electronic marketplaces,” he said.
Results of the 2021 controls
Five topics were on the DGCCRF’s investigation programme in 2021:
• Claims relating to the composition of cosmetic products
• Regulated substances, including CMRs
• Nanomaterials
• An exploratory investigation on products containing hemp derivatives
• Cosmetic products sold in bulk
Claims
The DGCCRF prioritised “With…” and “Free-from…” claims with similar volumes of checks in both cases. The inspectors found slightly more breaches for the “Free-from…” claims but slightly more serious breaches for the “With…” claims.
In detail:
• “Free-from…” claims: 337 operators checked, 52 samples taken, 146 warnings, 81 injunctions, 9 official reports
• “With…” claims: 396 operators checked, 56 samples, 117 warnings, 9 fines claims: 396 operators checked, 56 samples taken, 117 warnings, 99 injunctions, 21 official reports.
The checks …
