France has withdrawn 140 cosmetics skus from the marketplace for having banned preservatives in their formulations.
As part of its annual check, French regulatory agency the DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes) carried out a number of targeted actions to look for the banned ingredients.
It was alerted to their presence in June by consumer magazine UFC-Que Choisir which, in a survey of its own, found 23 cosmetics products containing banned preservatives.
The products found by the DGCCRF were subject to an immediate withdrawal requirement, meaning they had to be removed from the shelves immediately.
Distribution chain difficulties
Investigators also looked at responsibilities in the distribution chain.
Many batches were carrying old labels that showed the presence of banned substances, even though the products had been reformulated and no longer contained them.
The organisation cited this simply as a fault in the implementation of new packaging.
However, other products did contain banned substances and the DGCCRF cited several reasons:
- Some manufacturers had not told their distributors that such products could no longer be marketed.
- Others were trying to dispose of their stocks right up to the last minute before the ban came into place.
- Some retailers said they had not received withdrawal instructions from central purchasing offices or suppliers.
- Some retailers did not know about the prohibitions, especially ‘bazaar’-type retailers that do not specialise in cosmetics products.
The DGCCRF said it reminded the retailers of their regulatory obligations through official warnings, while details of two cases where manufacturers were continuing to use prohibited substances have been forwarded to the courts.
The organisation also said that, due to the unusually large number of breaches, in early 2018 it will publish the results of its annual check more widely.