Keep the European Union cruelty free
We’re campaigning to protect and strengthen the EU’s cosmetics animal testing bans
With our partners in the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments and The Body Shop, we successfully led the fight for the European Union’s groundbreaking prohibitions on animal experiments for cosmetics. After decades of campaigning with consumers, we secured:
2004: EU prohibits animal testing for finished cosmetic products
2009: Animal testing for cosmetic ingredients and combinations of ingredients is outlawed as well as a marketing ban for all human health effects with the exception of repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics
2013: A complete marketing ban for cosmetics containing ingredients tested on animals strengthens the existing bans
In 2018, the European Parliament adopts a resolution which backs Cruelty Free International’s call for a global ban on animal testing – once again establishing Europe’s role as a world leader in the fight against animal cruelty for cosmetics. However, in recent years, the European Chemicals Agency, backed by the European Commission, has called for tens of thousands of animals to be used in cosmetics ingredients tests.
We have joined forces with other animal protection organisations and our European sister organisation, Cruelty Free Europe, representing a total of 100 member organisations from 26 EU member states) to urgently mobilise at least one million European citizens to save cruelty free cosmetics in Europe and protect and strengthen the longstanding prohibitions on animal testing for cosmetics..
Recent test requirements from the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), backed by the European Commission, effectively destroy the bans and threaten the additional progress we and the European Parliament have been calling for since 2018 – a global ban on all animal testing for cosmetics by 2023.
ECHA is calling for new animal testing on ingredients that have been safely used by consumers and handled safely in factories for many years – even those solely used for cosmetics. Proposals for updated chemicals laws could make this situation even worse with the risk that thousands more animals could be subjected to cruel cosmetics tests when there are other ways to generate safety data.
What you can do to help
We have launched a European Citizens Initiative – a petition-like mechanism for nationals of EU member states to help shape the EU by calling on the European Commission to propose new laws.
Animal testing for cosmetics is not necessary to ensure safety thanks to modern, human-relevant, non-animal scientific methods, which safety scientists have been developing and using for decades.
We are demanding that the European Commission:
1.Protect and strengthen the cosmetics animal testing ban
Initiate legislative change to achieve consumer, worker and environmental protection for all cosmetics ingredients without new tests with animals for any purpose at any time.
2.Transform EU chemicals regulation
Ensure human health and the environment are protected by managing chemicals without the addition of new animal testing requirements.
3.Modernise regulatory science in the EU
Commit, before the end of its current term of office, to a legislative proposal plotting a road map to phase out all animal testing in the EU.
We need you to help us send a clear message that ECHA’s demands for new testing undermine the cosmetics animal testing bans, break with the policy of animal testing as a last resortand ignore the wishes of EU citizens.
European citizens can sign the Initiative and tell the Commission you won’t accept broken promises, or regulations that mean animals suffer and die for cosmetics.
Polling in 2020 carried out for Cruelty Free Europe shows that three quarters of adults in EU member states agree that animal testing for cosmetic products and their ingredients is unacceptable in all circumstances, and 70% back a phase-out plan for all animal testing.