Distributor's obligations

The distributor must comply with general due diligence.

The responsibilities of the distributor include ensuring that

  • product safety is not jeopardised during transport and storage;
  • the date of minimum durability of cosmetic products has not expired;
  • the packaging includes the required labelling in Finnish and Swedish;
  • it takes the necessary measures if it suspects that a product it has sold is not compliant with requirements, in practice this means taking necessary corrective measures, recalling the product from the market or removing the product from end users, for example;
  • it collaborates with authorities when requested by an authority;
  • it notifies authorities if a cosmetic product poses a danger to human health; and
  • it notifies authorities of serious undesirable effects caused by cosmetics.

Labelling in Finnish and Swedish

Before a distributor can start selling a cosmetic product it must ensure that

  • the product’s packaging includes the required information (EU Regulation on Cosmetic Products, Article 19); and
  • the required information is in Finnish and Swedish (EU Regulation on Cosmetic Products, Article 19, Section 5).

Distributor’s obligation to report products to the CPNP database

If the distributor has any marking on a cosmetic product translated into Finnish or Swedish, the distributor must report the following information to the CPNP database:

  • product group of the cosmetic product, name of the product in the EU/EEA Member State in which it is manufactured/placed on the market, name of the product in the EU/EEA Member State in which it is sold/released to end users, such as professionals or consumers;
  • the EU/EEA Member State in which the product is sold/released to end users;
  • name and postal address of the distributor; and
  • name of the responsible person and the postal address where the product information is kept available.