Aussie rulings evidence of unjustified regulation

9 May 2007

For Immediate Release

Australian rulings more evidence of unjustified regulation

Recent demands to remove cosmetic product advertising claims by the Therapeutic Goods Authority in Australia, demonstrate the issues that the industry has globally with the Australian based regime.

Products that are labelled and packaged internationally should not need to change to meet prescriptive advertising claims guidelines as applied in Australia.

In New Zealand all cosmetic products advertising and labelling claims are currently governed under the Advertising Standards Authority and should claims be found to be misleading, the New Zealand Commerce Commission has the power under the Fair Trading Act to prosecute any company.

There is no need for the prescriptive guidelines that Australia uses in New Zealand, as consumers fully understand the terminology being used and the internationally based products have strong science based evidence that the claims being made are true.

The cosmetics industry is strongly opposed to such rules being applied in New Zealand which would take us out of alignment with the rest of the world. This is possible if the proposed Joint Authority with Australia for therapeutic products and medicines occurs under current Government proposed legislation.

Prescriptive statements on what can, or can not be said in advertising of cosmetics, presumes that the regulators know better than the public and that the public does not have a right to know all of the potential benefits the product may contain.

All New Zealand cosmetics must adhere to the “Cosmetic Group Standard” under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act which permits international labelling using the best regulatory models for these products such as Europe and the US. This means that New Zealand consumers have a far wider range of products available to them than Australian consumers.

Actions such as those taken in Australia clearly demonstrate bureaucratic control excesses that should not be accepted for New Zealand.

ENDS

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