Revision of the EU Cosmetics Regulation: More Than 500,000 Products Could Be Banned

At the end of the year, the EU Commission will propose new legislation for the EU Cosmetics Regulation. It will consider feedback gathered from the public consultation that ended on June 21, 2022.

But in its comments, one association, Cosmetics Europe, warns about a prohibition that could affect about 570,000 products. These cosmetics could face a ban if the Generic Risk Assessment (GRA), which has long applied only to carcinogenic, mutagenic, and reprotoxic chemicals, is expanded, and, as planned, applied to substances with hormone-like effects. The GRA triggers a restriction based only on specific chemical properties. The goal is to prevent users from coming into contact with the substance and harming themselves.

The EU hopes to attain better consumer protection by implementing a Mixture Assessment Factor (MAF). It is expected to be more attentive to the risks posed by mixtures.

However, cosmetics associations also criticize these measures. They state that the risk characterizations that have been in use so far have proven to exceed the Margin of Safety around the world. Additional imposition of MAFs would hit the industry hard. Cosmetics Europe claims that more than half of hair dyes and 70% of UV filters would land on the index.

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