We're made up - but there's still more to do

11.03.2013

We are celebrating as the sale of cosmetics tested on animals is banned within the European Union today – 30 years since we began campaigning for ‘cruelty-free’ cosmetics.

From today (11 March), legislation bans the sale in EU countries of cosmetics which have been newly tested on animals.

Gavin Grant, chief executive of the RSPCA, said:

Animal testing in the name of beauty has never been acceptable. This landmark legislation at the end of a long campaign sends out a loud and clear message to other countries and those companies operating outside the EU.

Many cosmetic companies are multinational but this legislation means that they can’t avoid a test ban in the EU by carrying out tests in other countries. If their products or ingredients have been newly tested on animals then they cannot be sold in the EU, no matter where the testing took place.

Putting pressure on the EU

We along with a number of other organisations successfully lobbied the UK government to ban the animal testing of cosmetics products and ingredients in 1997 and 1998. We have since worked to ensure that this ban was extended right across the EU. Through our work with Eurogroup for Animals, the pressure has been maintained on the European Parliament, the European Commission and the cosmetics industry to invest in alternatives and implement the agreed ban.

Throughout the campaign, we have played an important role in various cosmetics industry advisory committees, pressing for investment into alternatives to animal testing and promoting ethical testing policies. We have also given our ‘Good Business Awards’ to companies like Lush and The Body Shop for their commitment to producing only ‘cruelty-free’ products.

Continued work to reduce the use and suffering of animals

Before animal use to test cosmetics ingredients was banned in the EU in 2009, around 2,000 animals were still being used across four countries (France, Czech Republic, Spain and Romania). However, millions more are still being used for the testing of chemicals used in other industry sectors. We are pushing hard for faster progress that will significantly reduce the use and suffering of these animals too.

Mr Grant added:

This is a great day for animals but it isn’t the end of the story - there are still many animals being used across the world to develop cosmetics products that will be sold outside of the EU. We will now be taking our message to these countries and companies to ask them to follow our lead and end this suffering.

Find out more

Find out more about some of our other campaign work, including our lab animal campaigns.