Animal tests for the production of cosmetics have been banned in the European Union since 2013, but today the EU Court of Justice has taken a further step forward, which in a ruling said no to beauty products "whose ingredients have been subjected to animal testing”, regardless of where the tests took place.
Basically, from today in EU countries it is possible to ban the sale of cosmetics that contain products tested on animals outside the borders of the Union to allow their sale in non-EU countries.
It all stems from an initiative by the EFCI, the professional association of cosmetic ingredient producers in the EU, which believed that European rules were not violated if the experimentation was conducted in order to comply with the regulations of non-EU countries.
The EFCI, therefore, asked the British justice if the products made for China and Japan could also be sold in the United Kingdom and the High Court of London turned to the judges of Luxembourg.
The latter replied that "the placing on the Union market of cosmetic products, some ingredients of which have been subjected to animal testing outside Europe to allow the marketing of such products in third countries, may be prohibited, if the data resulting from these trials are used to demonstrate the safety of the aforementioned products for the purpose of placing them on the Union market".
