Implementation of Administrative Measures on Cosmetics Labeling Put on Hold

Last November China Food and Drug Administration released the draft Administrative Measures on Cosmetics Labelling for public comment. According to the draft, all the regulatory requirements outlined in the draft were to be formally implemented by July 1 2015. Cosmetics already circulated on the market were to comply with the regulation from June 30 2016. However, the deadlines outlined in the draft have not been met and the CFDA has not released any information on the actual promulgation date of the finalized regulation.

It is suggested that the delay in release of the final version is due to issues raised by international stakeholders. For instance, in the draft version there are stricter requirements on permitted labeling terminology which poses considerable issues and the mandatory indication of efficacy also poses major issues for many cosmetic companies. The biggest controversy relates to proposed prohibition on the use of over-labeling. The draft stipulates that any form of relabeling, over-labeling, or other modification of original labeling is strictly forbidden. In this case, foreign suppliers must redesign original labels in Chinese specifically for the China market. However, recently the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported that during the WTO’s TBT committee China agreed to change this requirement.