On 5 June 2024, Taiwan notified the final texts of two lists of regulated ingredients entitled respectively: “Amendment to the list of ingredients restricted in cosmetic products” and “Promulgation of the list of UV filters in cosmetic products”. Both will come into force on 1 July 2024.
These are the equivalents of Annexes III (Ingredients subject to restrictions) and VI (Authorised UV filters) of European Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, which have just been adopted and published in Taiwan on 30 May 2024.
However, there are significant differences from the European lists.
Restricted ingredients
There are 186 entries on this list (compared with more than 370 in the European regulations), but this does not prevent us from finding certain ingredients subject to restrictions in Taiwan that are not regulated in Europe.
Starting with the first entry on the list, Allantoin, which is limited to a maximum concentration of 0.5%.
There are also differences in the restrictions imposed on the ingredients that appear on the two lists.
Kojic acid, for example, is limited to 2% in Taiwan, whereas it is not currently regulated in Europe, but will be restricted to products for the face and hands, and to a maximum concentration of 1% from 1 February 2025 (Regulation 2024/996).
The full list of ingredients restricted in cosmetic products in Taiwan is available here*.
UV filters
This list also contains fewer entries than the European one (29 authorised filters compared with 32), but the differences are less significant, since …
