The 15th annual Perfumes & Cosmetics Congress held in Chartres, France, last November 15-16, 2017, started with the traditional update on the latest European news, presented from the two different standpoints of the Commission and the industry. On the agenda of the presentations: claims, CMRs, nanomaterials, endocrine disruptors, allergens, microplastics, animal testing, preservatives, hair dyes, and an emerging, worrying theme: lisbonisation.
Salvatore d'Acunto, Head of Unit for Health Technology and Cosmetics within DG Grow at the European Commission, could not make it to Chartres, so he made a live video conference. Cosmetics Europe Technical Regulatory Affairs Director Gerald Renner followed, this time on the platform. Both their presentations highlighted shared concerns between regulatory authorities and the industry.
1. Claims: a technical document
The Commission’s report on the use of cosmetics claims and their compliance with the common criteria
published in September 2016
did not put an end to the ongoing work on the issue. A dedicated working subgroup produced a document specifically focused on the ‘Hypoallergenic’ and ‘Free from…’ claims. This technical document was made available on the European Commission’s website in July 2017, although it is not considered as a regulation or guideline: it is simply presented as a ‘tool’ and ‘
collection of best practice for the case-by-case application of Union legislation by the Member State’.
Compared to
the initial guidelines
, it includes two new annexes, Annex III dedicated to ‘Free from…’ claims, Annex IV to the ‘Hypoallergenic’ claim.
Read our article
‘Free from…’, ‘Hypoallergenic’…: what status for these claims?
.