Member Article

Global cosmetics giant joins call to support landmark EU cosmetics animal test bans

The world’s fourth-largest pure-play beauty group, Natura &Co, has signed an open letter sent today to decision-makers in the European Union calling on them to uphold the ground-breaking EU animal cosmetics testing bans which have served as a beacon of good practice around the globe, enabling consumers to make cruelty free choices and speeding up the development of animal-free testing.

Requirements by EU authorities for cosmetics ingredients to again be tested on animals have dealt a devastating blow to the cosmetics testing and marketing bans following a series of regulatory decisions made by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), with support from the European Commission and ECHA’s Board of Appeal. As a result, the bans are at serious risk of being undermined by EU chemicals legislation.

Natura &Co, which includes Avon, Natura, The Body Shop, and Aesop, is joining other leading beauty companies in backing the bans and urging consumers to show their support by shopping cruelty free this Holiday season to demonstrate that buying beauty products that are free from animal testing is important to them.

More than 460 cosmetics companies are adding their voices to those of animal protection groups and European citizens to once again show that they are forever against animal testing, urging shoppers to choose cruelty free this Holiday.

Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman and Group CEO of Natura &Co says: “We believe in the power of the collective voice, and that’s why we’re uniting with Cruelty Free International, the animal welfare community, and our peers in the cosmetics industry to support this important call to action. Natura &Co and its businesses have long used proven, scientific non-animal methods to test cosmetics ingredients and products, and we’ve done so while ensuring the very highest standards of safety and efficacy.

“We invite every individual, company, and organization who cares about animal welfare to call on the European Union to uphold its animal testing ban. During the Holiday season, we also invite consumers to flex their purchasing power by choosing to shop cruelty free.”

The Body Shop, part of the Natura &Co group, has been campaigning to ban animal testing in cosmetics for over 30 years and helped to change EU law with the ending of tests of cosmetics products on animals in 2003 and of ingredients in 2009. In 2018, The Body Shop and Cruelty Free International took a record-beating 8.3 million global signatures to the UN in New York in support of a worldwide end to animal testing for cosmetics everywhere and forever.

David Boynton, CEO of The Body Shop says: “More than 30 years ago, The Body Shop and its customers began to campaign for a ban on animal testing for cosmetics purposes. Our years of campaigning culminated in the EU ban which was celebrated by consumers and companies across the world. For decades we have proved that non-animal testing methods are effective to protect people and the planet, and that animal testing for cosmetic purposes is outdated and cruel. We urge the EU to lead the world on this issue by ensuring that animal testing is ended, forever.”

Michelle Thew, CEO of Cruelty Free International, who oversaw the Leaping Bunny approval of Natura and Aesop and worked alongside The Body Shop to achieve the EU animal cosmetics testing bans, says: “The leadership the EU showed in bringing the full EU testing and marketing bans into force deserves much credit. Now it’s time for animal protection advocates, brands, industry, influencers and the public to come together to help protect this ground-breaking legislation and ensure that cruel and unnecessary animal suffering for cosmetics is eliminated from EU laboratories for good. We are calling for the European Union to listen to public opinion and ensure we uphold what EU legislators intended in 2013.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Peter Callahan .