EU Cosmetics Companies Face Losing their Cruelty-Free Status Due to Industrial Chemical Testing Requirements

08.08.2025

London – PETA has issued an urgent appeal to protect the integrity of the cruelty-free cosmetics industry, as a regulatory loophole is forcing companies to test on animals to comply with chemical safety requirements.

For over four decades, PETA entities around the world have led the movement to end animal testing for cosmetics, with PETA US hosting the world’s largest cruelty-free program. That progress is under threat. Under the EU REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation animal testing should be used only as a last resort, yet in practice, it continues to mandate tests on thousands of animals for substances used in cosmetics—even when those chemicals are used solely in cosmetics and have a long history of safe use.

As a result, PETA US’s Beauty Without Bunnies program is undergoing a policy overhaul. To preserve the integrity of the cruelty-free standard going forward, only those companies that sell their products in the U.S., Canada, Germany, or India will be listed on PETA.org. The PETA entities in these countries accept applications for the cruelty-free designation and keep their own lists. They can communicate with those companies and be assured that companies’ commitments to removing tests on animals from their supply chain remain intact. Applications from companies marketing exclusively in other countries are suspended until the EU closes the REACH cosmetics loophole. Any company found to be in breach of the Beauty Without Bunnies standards will be placed on the ‘DO TEST’ list.

“Thousands of animals are being force-fed cosmetics ingredients in painful and deadly tests, despite overwhelming support from more than 1.2 million citizens who signed the European Citizens’ Initiative to protect and strengthen the EU’s groundbreaking bans on animal testing for cosmetics,” says PETA Head of Science Policy Dr. Julia Baines. “The European Commission must respect the will of EU citizens and save cruelty-free cosmetics.”

Modern, human-relevant, non-animal methods already exist for assessing the safety of ingredients and are being used by progressive companies. There is simply no excuse for these tests to continue.

PETA is calling on the European Commission to close the REACH loophole and strengthen existing bans on tests on animals and urges companies to take a stand against any animal testing requirements. For a comprehensive list of truly cruelty-free brands, PETA urges consumers to visit the PETA US global Beauty Without Bunnies database of over 6,300 companies that refuse to test on animals.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on” –  points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 207 923 6244; [email protected]

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