Cosmed on cosmetic regulation in ASEAN and how it aligns with Europe: Part II
Marie Magnan, Cosmed’s Regulatory Affairs Manager, gives her take on the regulatory landscape between the two regions. Find the introduction part here.
National specificities
As a Directive, each country has to transpose it into national law. This can lead to different interpretations and national specificities.
For examples, in Indonesia, the labelling has to be in national language and some hair dyes, authorised in the others ASEAN countries, are banned in Indonesia.
In Thailand, some claims are specifically forbidden (the term “eraser” is forbidden for anti-ageing products, the term “restructure” is authorised only hairstyling products…).
Evolution of the regulation: main decisions of the ASEAN Cosmetic Committee
Twice a year the ASEAN Cosmetic Committee takes place in the different countries of ASEAN.
The representatives of ASEAN countries gather during four days to talk about and make decisions about the future evolutions of ASEAN cosmetic regulation.
Most recent updates
A few weeks ago, on mid-November, the 27th ASEAN Cosmetic Committee (ACC) meeting occurs in Bandung, in Indonesia. The main resolutions voted on the last day were about cosmetic ingredients listed in annexes of ASEAN Cosmetic Directive.
Concerning ingredients, at each meeting, the last evolutions of European regulation are commented and the committee resolve to implement them or not in ASEAN.
For the 27th meeting, the authorities of ASEAN countries decided to modify the restriction on methylisothiazolinone, to authorise it at a maximum of 15ppm in rinsed-off products (implementation in June 2019) and to ban lyral, atranol and chloroatranol (implementation in August 2019).
In the 26th meeting in June, the mention “do not use to dye eyelashes or eyebrows” was added to the mandatory labelling when using hair dyes. This labelling for hair dyes was again supplemented during the 27th meeting, as the term “wear suitable gloves” will be mandatory from December 2020.
What next?
As a conclusion, exportation of cosmetic products in the ASEAN area is made easier by this harmonised regulation. However, cosmetic companies have to be careful to the different national specificities that can block a product in one country of ASEAN.
It is thus important to be informed of the specificities for each country but also to communicate in advance with the local agent which is also the responsible person for the cosmetic in ASEAN market.
About Cosmed
COSMED, the professional association of the cosmetic industry in France, counts 785 SMEs members.
It is an industry stakeholder in the European Commission for the development of cosmetic regulation, as well as in national and international standardization bodies.
Its contributions and regulatory and scientific views are internationally recognized. Furthermore, Cosmed provided a regulatory monitoring to institutions and enterprises.
