Overview

With the inflow of visitors from mainland China under the individual visit scheme and the associated growth in Hong Kong’s retail sales, many cosmetic businesses are keen to enter the Hong Kong cosmetic market. For many years, Hong Kong has continued to attract global brands to establish a presence and target mainland customers from China.

Cosmetic products in Hong Kong are regulated by the Consumer Goods Safety Ordinance (Cap 456) (CGSO) and the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (Cap 362) (TDO), enforced by the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department (C&ED). According to the CGSO, cosmetics and consumer goods generally supplied in Hong Kong must comply with the "General Safety Requirement," which imposes a duty on manufacturers, importers, and suppliers to ensure product safety during usage. While conducting cosmetic product safety assessments, C&ED will carry out product testing in accordance with the applicable international safety standards. The TDO also protects consumers by prohibiting false trade descriptions, false, misleading, and/or incomplete information, and misstatements with respect to the goods provided in the course of trade.

As per the Hong Kong cosmetic regulations, cosmetic notification or cosmetic product registration in Hong Kong is not required for marketing the products. In other words, the market does not have any pre-market approval system, so, it is not mandatory to appoint a cosmetics legal representative for Hong Kong.

However, having a local importer/distributor is a prerequisite to importing and/or distributing the products in the country. Therefore, cosmetic product formulation, as well as cosmetic claims, must be compliant with the current regulations. Freyr does a thorough cosmetics ingredient review to ensure they are safe and permitted. Similarly, there must not be any medicinal claims along with false or misleading claims. Only acceptable cosmetic claims must be displayed as per the applicable cosmetic labeling regulations.

As a proven Regulatory partner, Freyr has extensive experience in providing cosmetic Regulatory services in Hong Kong, including product compliance checks comprising a formulation review, cosmetic label, and cosmetic claims review. Our experts support cosmetic product manufacturers in decoding the Hong Kong cosmetics registration process and achieving end-to-end compliance with CGSO regulations.