Cosmetics Labelling Violations in Canada

Deciphering the ingredients list on a cosmetic product is never an easy task, especially when the manufacturers make a point of using ridiculously miniscule print. Some small products such as eye-shawdow, eye liner and lipstick do not even carry ingredients list because the product is not large enough to bear a long list of chemicals. When the cosmetic companies violate labelling laws it makes it even harder for the consumer to establish precisely what is lurking within their beauty products.

CanWest News Service recently published a story into widespread cosmetic labelling violations in Canada, using Health Canada inspection reports. At one store inspectors discovered 47 personal care products that breach cosmetic labelling laws and in another store found that 80 to 90 per cent of the products did not meet the required standards. The offenders included big name brands such as Nivea Visage Q10 Advanced Wrinkle Reducer and Biotherm White Detox from L’Oreal.

Health Canada have suggested that most of the contraventions were minor, such as not correctly using INCI labelling. However, inappropriate cosmetic claims were noted (such as “reverses wrinkles”) and in some instances hazard symbols were too small in proportion to the container size. To me this is incredibly important. If a cosmetic product presents any kind of hazard it should have a decent sized hazard symbol on the front, not on the back of the bottle, where it is usually hidden at the bottom underneath reams of marketing spiel. In addition manufacturers should not be able to get away with making incorrect marketing statements about their products. Of course they frequently do, not just in Canada but around the world.

In the UK, between June and November 2005 14 members of TSSE (comprised of 19 Trading Standards authorities in the South East of England), carried out a project to ascertain levels of compliance with the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 2004, concentrating on manufacturers, distributors and importers within the TSSE region. The TSSE  found that 60 percent of the samples failed to meet the terms of the regulations. Many of the failures were due to labelling violations, which were again, deemed to be relatively minor.

Manufacturers have a responsibility to the consumer to provide the most accurate information possible about the ingredients in a product and the efficacy of the product.