Takehome:
On July 9, 2018, Korean MFDS announced the results of an inspection conducted on hair loss functional cosmetics, and imposed administrative sanctions on a total of 587 functional cosmetics due to use of spurious or exaggerated advertisement.
The major reasons for functional cosmetics inspection failure:
- Functional cosmetics are claimed as quasi drugs;
- The advertisements and claims exceed the scope of functional cosmetics advertisement/labeling standards.
Common advertisement terminological compliance violations associated with hair loss cosmetics:
- Increase hair thickness
- Hair growth
- Promote hair growth genes/Silence hair loss genes
- Scalp regeneration
- Hair repair, etc.
These claims use non-standardized terminology beyond the scope of Korea' s functional cosmetic labeling claim standards which stipulate permitted terminology can only indicate hair loss reduction but not hair growth etc.
Korean MFDS plans to train registered cosmetics manufacturers and distributors on permitted terminology used on labels and advertisements for hair loss functional cosmetics.