Misleading "organic" claim for cosmetic products
LVwG Lower Austria from 13.11.2023, LVwG-S-1656/001-2023 - Misleading "organic" claim for cosmetic products.
A cosmetic product was placed on the market in an eye-catching manner on the front of the cardboard packaging in the same field of vision as the product name with the indication "organic" with 2 leaves and a circular text in small letters "with valuable active ingredients from nature". The front of the product also stated "with edelweiss and mare's milk". On the side of the product was the statement "made with certified organic raw materials and Alpine herbs". On the underside of the cardboard packaging, only mare's milk was marked as an ingredient from certified organic farming in the list of ingredients. The substance is in 5th place in the list of ingredients, which means that it is the fifth most common substance in terms of quantity.
So it only contained one certified organic raw material, but in the course of the process it turned out that not even that is certain.
The code number and/or the name of the responsible organic inspection body is not mentioned.
The Austrian Food Code on Natural Cosmetics contains a regulation so that the consumer does not get the impression that a natural cosmetic product is an organic cosmetic product. The eye-catching presentation of the term "organic" in this case can only be understood to mean that the product in question is an organic cosmetic and not an indication that an individual ingredient is of organic quality.
Irrespective of the fact that the Regional Administrative Court was unable to establish that an ingredient was from controlled organic cultivation, the claim is misleading. Even if one wanted to assume that the mare's milk in the sample taken - listed on the packaging as the only organic raw material - actually came from controlled organic cultivation, its proportion of the total product would only have been 1/20 or (minus the water content) only around 1/6. With reference to a decision by the German Higher Regional Court of Hamm dated March 20, 2012 in case I-4U193/11, the court stated that the designation "organic" gives the consumer the impression that the cosmetic product so designated is composed at least predominantly, i.e. over 50%, of natural, plant-based ingredients.
The Provincial Administrative Court of Lower Austria agreed with this view. In particular, the packaging in question is misleading because the majority of the active ingredients on the packaging in question are from nature or certified organic raw materials, although none or at best one of the ingredients is certified organic. There is a violation of Regulation (EU) 655/2013 because the statement "produced with certified organic raw materials" has not been substantiated by sufficient and verifiable evidence. The presentation would give the impression that the entire product is "organic".
Overall, the decision is not a guideline for the labeling of organic cosmetics, because if no ingredient at all comes from controlled organic cultivation, or only one that makes up a small part of the overall product, the claim as "organic" is undoubtedly misleading.