EU Confirms Ban on Animal Testing

EU Confirms Ban on Animal Testing

It’s an exciting time for animal lovers out there. The EU has officially confirmed that a ban on animal tested cosmetics and ingredients will soon go into effect!! This ban goes into effect  on March 11, 2013. From that date forward, all cosmetics sold in the EU cannot be tested on animals or contain ingredients that have been tested on animals. This covers both high end and drugtstore cosmetics.

There are many great articles about this issue that you can read online. I suggest reading and learning as much as you can. Each one features different organizations that were involved in this process and it’s truly amazing to see how much hard work and support went into making this ban happen. There are articles from the Huffington Post, E Magazine, PCRM, PR Newswire, NY Daily News, Naoki and many many others.

After 20 years of support from small animal rights organizations, this proposed ban has finally gone into effect. This is a groundbreaking step for anyone involved in the animal rights movement, or simply anyone who doesn’t want to harm animals to have their favorite lipstick. It shows that using your voice really does have results in the end. Hopefully other worldwide markets will soon follow in the steps of the EU and ban animal testing as well.

6 Comments

  1. Hi, I was wondering if brands such as L’oreal, estee lauder and others that DO test on animals, dont do such when exporting to the EU? I mean they will obviously do so in cases like China but when you buy the same product in china and in England will the one bought in england not be tested on animals unlike the one in China?, I currently live in Peru and I try not to buy products tested on animals but here such thing is really hard, since almost every product is tested on animals but im moving to the uk so I wanted to be sure about this new ban, can I rest assured whilst buying MAC (Do test) cosmetics in the uk?
    Thank You!

  2. Yes, this is great news but as previously mentioned we (I live in Sweden) will still have to be wary. I understand it as all NEW products will be banned but existing ones that currently fill the shelves will be sold as usual.
    One does of course wonder what it will look like a few months down the line when all spring and summer collections should be out in stores..
    I guess that big companies such as L’Oreal and Estée Lauder (and respective subsidiaries) are quite panick stricken by now.
    I could go on and on but in short, it is a multi faceted problem for them and it will be extremely interesting to see how this unfolds.
    Personally for me it won’t be any different than now since I’m already a cruelty free consumer.
    Interesting side note: India has decided to “go the EU route”. This might be yet another strong voice against animal cruelty.
    China, you’re next..

  3. Yes, I’m really excited about this and hope the rest of the world will follow 🙂

    However we (as in European consumers) will still need to watch out what we buy in the EU, as current and older products will still be sold (which will have ingredients in them recently tested) and companies may still test on animals, just not in the EU anymore or sell those particular products in the EU. So I’m still boycotting all big brands that test elsewhere or sell in China, as it doesn’t mean that the companies are cruelty free… but it’s a big step forward and I hope this will inspire the big brands to end animal testing worldwide!

    1. Hi Sophie!

      Thank you for your comment with all this great information. These are details that I was wondering about, and it’s great to hear them from someone living in Europe who really sees how this will impact the market. I’m definitely going to do a post with more details. Especially since what you have mentioned is so important. I’m going to update this post to include your article on the topic. If you have any interest in writing a guest post with more details, please let me know!

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