Korea Cosmetics Association pushes for a revision of natural and organic cosmetics regulations.

According to the news published on https://www.meconomynews.com/ in February 2023, the deletion of regulations related to natural and organic cosmetics, which the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety included in the top 100 regulatory innovation tasks in August 2022, is on its way to becoming a reality. 

Korea Cosmetics Association (KCA), which announced a regulatory innovation plan for the growth of cosmetics in Korea, announced on the 17th of February a proposal to delete the Natural and Organic Cosmetics Act and abolish the government-led certification system. The related content has already been discussed with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety since 2022, and it is expected that the law will be revised this year. 

According to the KCA, Korea is the only country in the world that regulates natural or organic cosmetics and operates a certification system at the government level. World-renowned ECOCERT in France, BDIH in Germany, and Soil Association in the UK are all private certifications. 

Another problem is that products that do not meet the standards of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety cannot use the same marketing words and phrases in Korea even if they are certified by overseas certification agencies that are highly recognized in the world. 

Even if a company marks, advertises, and sells natural or organic cosmetics with global certification in overseas markets, it must mark, advertise, and sell them as general cosmetics in Korea without informing consumers of the differentiated characteristics of natural or organic cosmetics. 

Accordingly, the KCA association proposed to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to abolish the certification system recognized by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and revise the law that meets the market's autonomy, along with some revisions to the Cosmetics Act, which acts as natural or organic regulations. 

A KCA official told Meconomynews that "The government doesn’t have to regulate these certifications. We need to convert government-led certification of natural or organic cosmetics to private-led to facilitate market changes, reduce industry burdens such as duplicate certification, and secure market autonomy so that K-beauty can respond quickly to global trends and consumer needs."