The EU has long had requirement for every cosmetic product to carry details enabling the person responsible for placing it on the market to be contacted and held responsible. The name ‘responsible person’ can be a bit misleading. It simply means a legal entity – which while it could be a person it is much more likely to be a company. It’s quite a useful bit of legislation because it clears up exactly who is held to account for the safety of the product. If you buy a bottle of say Head and Shoulders from a supermarket – who do you go to if you have a problem? A lawyer could argue that the bargain was between you and the supermarket. But it is Proctor and Gamble who have actually placed it on the market. I think most people would agree it is them who should put the work in to make sure it meets requirements.
The drawback is that it is hard to remember that the responsible person isn’t an actual person. Especially when the responsibilities that the responsible person is responsible as laid down in Article 4 sound very much like the kinds of things a person would be responsible for.
“Only cosmetic products for which a legal or natural person
is designated within the Community as ‘responsible person’ shall
be placed on the market.”“For each cosmetic product placed on the market, the responsible person shall ensure compliance with the relevant obligations set out in this Regulation.”
But in most cases there isn’t a busy individual walking around with a ‘Responsible Person’ badge on and a very long todo list. The reality is that compliance is a team effort and is down to the company. And it is the company as a legal entity that is accountable – so not surprisingly the authorities want a way of identifying who they need to talk to make sure everything is as it should be. This has long been the case in the EU, and the same requirement has been carried over into UK law while it is outside the EU. And it will be coming into force in the US shortly.
The responsible person requirement is easily met for brands selling into their own home market. In fact it is virtually automatic, simply by putting the name and address on the pack. If you want to sell in another territory it is necessary to appoint a legal entity to be your representative there. CCC handles this by having a contract in place with a company that operates in that territory and which has a suitable business address. You can then enter into an agreement with CCC, and use that company as the name that appears on your pack. It’s as simple as that. The only further requirement is that you have to agree to let us audit your systems and documentation to make sure that we are happy to represent you.
We hope that this will be an attractive option for companies that aren’t yet at the stage where they want to open their own US, UK or EU subsidisary.
