South Korea Consults on Cosmetics Act

On March 22, 2023, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) published a notification¹ to solicit public opinions on the Cosmetics Act. Suggestions are welcome before May 2, 2023.

The competent authority plans to clarify the prohibited label scope by optimizing the relevant provisions.

Currently, any of the below behaviours are not permitted:

Advertisements or labels that may be misinterpreted the cosmetics as medicines;
Advertisements or labels may be misinterpreted the non-functional cosmetics as functional cosmetics;
Advertisements or labels that may be misinterpreted the non-organic/natural cosmetics as organic/natural cosmetics.

However, enterprises may misunderstand the labeling items due to the lack of explicit explanations of the prohibited labeling scope in the Cosmetics Act. Therefore, the authority proposed to modify the relevant provisions and clarify the obscure terminologies. The details are as below:

Present

Proposed amendments

Article 13 (Prohibition of False Labeling and Advertising) (1) Neither business operator nor seller shall label or advertise the cosmetics as follows:

1. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking the cosmetics are medicines;

2. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking any cosmetic other than a functional cosmetic is a functional cosmetic, or labeling or advertisements different from the examination results of its safety and efficacy;

3. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking any cosmetic other than a natural or organic cosmetic is a natural or organic cosmetic.

Article 13 (Prohibition of False Labeling and Advertising) (1) Neither business operator nor seller shall label or advertise the cosmetics as follows:

1. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking the cosmetics are the medicines in Article 2 (4) under Pharmaceutical Affairs Act²;

2. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking the cosmetic which hasn't passed the relevant inspection specified in Article 4 and thus didn't get a functional cosmetic recognition is a functional cosmetic, or labels or advertisements different from the examination results of its safety and efficacy;

3. Labels or advertisements likely to mislead consumers into thinking a cosmetic that is not a natural or organic cosmetic as specified in Article 2 (2)-2 is a natural or organic

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