On this day in vegan history · March 11, 2013
The EU Closes the Loophole on Cruelty-Free Cosmetics
After nearly a decade of phase-ins and industry lobbying, the European Union finally made it illegal to sell a lipstick or shampoo anywhere in its 27 countries if it, or any ingredient in it, had been freshly tested on an animal.
The facts
- Date
- March 11, 2013
- What changed
- Full EU marketing ban on cosmetics or ingredients newly tested on animals, wherever the testing occurred
- Phase-in began
- September 11, 2004, with a ban on testing finished cosmetic products
- Industry scale
- European cosmetic companies had 2010 revenues of €71 billion, directly employing about 180,000 people
On March 11, 2013, the European Union's full marketing ban on animal-tested cosmetics took effect, closing the last exemptions that had let certain ingredient tests slide since an earlier 2009 deadline. The rule covered the hardest categories to replace with non-animal science: repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity, and toxicokinetics. It applied to any cosmetic sold in the EU no matter where in the world the testing happened, so an ingredient tested on animals in another country still could not be sold in an EU-market product. Cosmetics Europe, the industry group, warned the deadline would slow innovation; EU health commissioner Tonio Borg framed it as a safety-without-compromise milestone instead. The ban itself was the last step of a phase-in that began in September 2004, when testing finished cosmetic products on animals was first outlawed EU-wide.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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This is a great opportunity for Europe to set an example of responsible innovation in cosmetics without any compromise on consumer safety.
Tonio Borg, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, on the ban taking effect, 2013
Source: CBS News -
The EU was hailed as the world's largest cruelty-free beauty market in 2013 when the final phase of its step-wise bans on cosmetics animal testing and sales entered into force.
Humane Society International / Humane World for Animals, marking the ban's 10th anniversary, 2023
Source: Humane World for Animals
Why it still matters
It made the EU the world's largest cruelty-free cosmetics market overnight, and it forced a real reckoning: brands and regulators had to invest in non-animal safety science instead of treating animal testing as the default. The precedent still gets cited whenever another country debates its own ban.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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