On 29 March 2017, the United Kingdom notified its intention to leave Europe under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. From 1 January 2021, the final date of Brexit, it has become a “third country”. Despite the free trade agreement reached in extremis on 24 December 2020, the consequences (regulatory, legal, customs, organisational, etc.) are manifold. This dossier takes stock of all the implications of Brexit for cosmetics companies, and regularly follows the differences that have gradually emerged between the European and British regulations.
The jolts of the calendar
Difficult negotiations around the transition agreement, intense political negotiations and crucial electoral stakes: the road to the Brexit (the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union), opened by the British referendum of June 2016, is far from being a long quiet river. In the face of successive blockages and last-chance attempts, the date initially set for 29 March 2019 has been postponed several times. Until the last dead-line on 1 January 2021… and the agreement finally reached on 24 December 2020.
Guides and notices of European and national institutions
As the deadline approached, the authorities began, and with increasing urgency, to encourage companies to prepare for the scenario of an exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union without agreement and without a transition period. These calls were coupled with advice and guidance on the actions to be implemented. The European Commission is quite prolific in this area, and the Member States, including France, are not to be outdone at national level.
Professional advice for the cosmetic sector
While some of the implications of Brexit affect all companies without exception, each sector has its own specificities. For the cosmetic industry, these include the location of the Responsible Person and the PIF, product notification, qualification of the safety assessor, REACH registrations, new customs rules and their impact on supply and distribution chains, etc. Several congresses have provided an opportunity to study each of its aspects in detail.
Post-Brexit
Once it became final, agreed, negotiated, and all deadlines had expired… it was not yet over. The Brexit still had to be implemented in a very concrete way by companies and authorities on both sides of the Channel. A new situation means new procedures to observe and unusual reflexes to acquire. And just as you learn to walk by walking, it is by experiencing the various impacts of Brexit that you learn, little by little, how to manage them…
And as the UK has become a third country to Europe, it has also started to institute its own laws, which affects notably the regulation of cosmetic ingredients, where, little by little, differences have appeared on both sides of the Channel…
