Can block a launchEuropean UnionBeauty & personal care

Animal testing is a market ban, not a label

The European Union prohibits placing on the market any cosmetic product whose final formulation or whose ingredients have been the subject of animal testing to meet the Regulation’s requirements where a validated alternative method exists, with the implementation period for the remaining endpoints of repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics limited to 11 March 2013.

In the United States this is a marketing word a brand chooses; in the European Union it is a condition of being allowed to sell at all, so the same bottle carries a claim in one market and a licence in the other.

Limits how to read “Cruelty-free” has no legal definition in the US

Exceptions and limits

The prohibition on placing animal-tested cosmetic products on the market that appears at Article 18 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 continues to have effect in Great Britain as retained legislation published by The National Archives, so the substantive rule is the same text on both sides of the border while the filings that satisfy it are separate.

95 of a possible 97Tier A, primary document or measured outcome. Nothing at this tier is allowed past 97, however good it looks.

Verified August 5, 2026Rechecked every 365 days, next by August 5, 2027.

Constraint

Held since March 11, 2013A rule, law or policy that limits what you may do or say. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Supported, version 1.

This entry is wrong if

Article 18 is repealed or suspended, or the Commission grants a general derogation permitting the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.

Written before the record was published, not after. If you can show this, send it to hello@tryorbt.com and the correction goes on the record with the entry.

Evidence

Tier Aregulation
Publications Office of the European Union: Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products
the placing on the market of cosmetic products containing ingredients or combinations of ingredients which, in order to meet the requirements of this Regulation, have been the subject of animal testing using a method other than an alternative method after such alternative method has been validated and adopted at Community level
Read 2026-08-05 · Open government · page hash 858298b0649b
Tier Aregulation
Publications Office of the European Union: Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products
In relation to the tests concerning repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics, for which there are no alternatives yet under consideration, the period for implementation of paragraph 1(a) and (b) shall be limited to 11 March 2013.
The date is taken from the implementation timetable in Article 18(2) rather than from the Regulation’s own entry into force, because the marketing ban on those endpoints is what bites and it is the later of the two dates.
Read 2026-08-05 · Open government · page hash 858298b0649b

History

v1createdAugust 5, 2026
Initial entry from primary regulator text outside the United States, read 2026-08-05. EUR-Lex is behind a bot challenge we do not work around, so this text comes from the Publications Office Cellar service under content negotiation, which is the documented machine-readable route to the same Official Journal document.

Append-only. Nothing in this list is edited or removed once written, including the entries that record our own mistakes. Every change to every record is on the corrections page, and the same log is in entries.json under revisions.

eu
animal-testing
cruelty-free
market-entry
compliance
beauty

Cite this entry

“Animal testing is a market ban, not a label”, The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0, entry omr:eu:animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold, retrieved September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/eu--animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold. Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22679129

Orbt, "Animal testing is a market ban, not a label," Orbt Market Index, entry omr:eu:animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold, verified August 5, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/eu--animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold.

@misc{orbt-eu-animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold,
  title        = {Animal testing is a market ban, not a label},
  author       = {{Orbt}},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22679129},
  note         = {The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0 (dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22679129), entry omr:eu:animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold. Verified 2026-08-05},
  howpublished = {\url{https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/eu--animal-tested-cosmetics-cannot-be-sold}},
  license      = {Orbt Index Public Licence. Free to quote and cite; not to redistribute}
}

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