Who has never dreamt of a “’”world label”? One single label for all countries cosmetics can be exported to? The round table held on this issue at the Cosmetic World Tour organized by the FEBEA (French Federation of Beauty Companies) on September 19-20, 2016, showed just how impossible a mission it is, as the labelling requirements were reviewed country by country.
Two experts in cosmetics regulations facilitated this round table: Barbara Hévy, of LVMH, and Érica Mennesson, of Nuxe. They laid their cards on the table straight away: “Today, a ‘world’ label is a dream that cannot come true. There are so many local regulations imposing specific requirements that it is impossible to come up with unique packaging, and there is no other solution than ‘sticking’ labels on packaging.”
They went on with a few examples:
• Certain countries like Japan, Korea, China, India, Brazil, or Thailand, impose mandatory indications to be translated to their national languages
• Some of them require the local distributor or legal entity’s address to be specified on the label, like Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, ASEAN countries, Bahrain, Middle East countries, Canada, the United States if the product is classified as an OTC, Mercosur members (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela…)
• Others do the same with the registration number (India, Thailand, Brazil, China…), which implies affixing a label locally, after the product has been registered
• Saudi Arabia requires the volume of alcohol to be mentioned on perfumes, as well as an indication – in Arabic – specifying the product is intended for external use …
