While the European Commission published in 2022 a transversal version of the definition of a nanomaterial, different from that of the Cosmetics Regulation 1223/2009, the debate is still lively between the French control authorities and the cosmetics industry on the criteria applied during controls. This note takes up the main lines of the one previously published in 2021, but adds some nuances… pending the revision of the Regulation.
Dated 28 February 2023 and published on 16 March, this joint Note from the DGCCRF and the ANSM, the two French control authorities for cosmetic products, indicates at the outset that it is an update of the one published on 5 July 2021, following the revision by the European Commission of its definition of a nanomaterial.
It thus takes up the structure and a large part of the text, in which however we note some evolutions.
The question of the threshold
On this point, there is no change of interpretation on the substance. For the control authorities, the Cosmetics Regulation does not currently provide for a threshold above which a substance is considered a nanomaterial. The Commission Recommendation, which provides for a fraction of more than 50% of particles smaller than 100 nm to consider a substance as nano, has no legal and binding scope and “cannot render the definition of the Cosmetics Regulation inapplicable.
The control authorities therefore intend to comply with the current framework applicable to cosmetic products. BUT! While a tolerance of 10% in terms of the number of nanoparticles is still applied during inspections, what is new is that coercive or repressive measures will only be …
