(adding photo)The European
Court of Justice ruled Wednesday that cosmetics tested on
animals outside the EU can legitimately be banned from being
imported and sold within the Union.
An EU law forbidding the cosmetics industry from engaging in
animal testing, as well as the sale of such cosmetics, went into
effect March 11, 2013.
The European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFfCI) had
petitioned the British judge sitting on the EU court to decide
whether three of its members - who tested their products on
animals in labs outside the EU for sale in China and Japan - are
liable to sanctions if they try to put those same products on
the market in Britain.
"Europe has upheld its position against cosmetics animal
testing and the ban on importing cosmetics tested on animals in
foreign markets," said Anti-Vivisection League (LAV) President
Gianluca Felicetti at the presentation of Animal Aid Live 2016,
an animal rights benefit concert to be held September 25 in
Rome's central Piazza del Popolo square.
"The ruling is also a victory for the validity of
scientific research without animals," Felicetti said, pointing
out that "the EU's action has in the past spurred two large
cosmetics-exporting countries such as India and Brazil to also
ban this type of animal experimentation".
French Greens MEP Pascal Durand hailed "a strong new
message in favor of a more ethical science - animal experiments
belong to another era to which the EU, the largest global market
for cosmetics and cures, has put an end as other countries in
the world have done".
"This ruling is wonderful because it resolves the root of
the problem we had - you can't test cosmetics on animals in
Europe anymore, but the big companies do it abroad and then
bring the products into Europe," said Italian Animal Rights
non-profit chief Walter Caporale.
"Now we can tell these companies: if you do animal
experiments in America, in Africa, in Asia, we will call for a
ban on your products," Caporale said.
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