Compliance with the ban on animal testing for cosmetics

8.1.2021

Question for written answer  E-000087/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Annika Bruna (ID), Aurelia Beigneux (ID), Gilbert Collard (ID)

Testing cosmetics and their ingredients on animals has been completely banned since March 2013.

Consequently, cosmetic products that have been tested on animals may not be placed on the market, even when the tests were carried out in a country outside the EU (CJEU, 21 September 2016, Case C-592/14).

It has now been demonstrated that the alternative methods developed are sufficiently reliable to obviate any further need for these particularly cruel tests.

However, on 18 August 2020, the Board of Appeal of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) judged, in the Symrise cases, that the REACH Chemicals Regulation required the registrants to conduct studies on vertebrate animals, even if the substances concerned were used exclusively in cosmetic products, in order to assess the safety of these ingredients for workers.

This decision seriously undermines the ban on animal testing for cosmetic products.

Our question is thus as follows: Will the Commission ensure that the ban on placing on the EU market cosmetics containing ingredients that have been tested on animals is complied with, as laid down by Regulation No 1223/2009 of 30 November 2009?