Gov. Brown Signs California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill 1249, the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, into law on Friday, Sept. 28.

Authored by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani and co-sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Social Compassion in Legislation, SB 1249 will make it unlawful for cosmetic manufacturers to sell any cosmetic in California if the final product or any component of the product was tested on animals after Jan. 1, 2020, with some exceptions for regulatory requirements.

“With the passage of SB 1249, California now leads the country in supporting modern, reliable cosmetic safety testing, while protecting animals from unnecessary suffering,” said Galgiani.

Introduced to the legislature in February of this year, SB 1249 was endorsed by 100 cosmetics companies, including John Paul Mitchell Systems and Lush Cosmetics. 

The Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) said in a statement that  it “appreciates Governor Brown’s signing of Senate Bill 1249 (Galgiani), the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act – another step forward in product safety testing that considers consumer protection and animal welfare.”

“On behalf of the 415,000 Californians employed by the personal care products industry and our coalition of health, labor, science, and business organizations, we thank Governor Brown for signing this important bill into law. The California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act is pragmatic legislation that balances animal welfare, regulatory requirements, and decades of science,” noted Lezlee Westine, president and CEO of PCPC.

The bill, according to PCPC, makes important exemptions, including for products and ingredients already available for sale in California, for example, or those that need to comply with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or foreign governments’ testing requirements.

“The Personal Care Products Council and its member companies have worked with policy makers to achieve regulatory and scientific advancements that will move the world closer to eliminating the need for animals in product safety testing. For nearly four decades, both in the U.S. and globally, our companies have been at the forefront of the movement to develop viable alternative safety assessment methods, and we will continue to work towards this important charge,” Westine added.

When advocating for this legislation that advances animal welfare without sacrificing jobs and public health, PCPC was joined by a broad coalition, which included the United Food & Commercial Workers, California Retailers Association, California Chamber of Commerce, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, California Manufacturers & Technology Association, the Congress of California Seniors, and the California Life Sciences Association, among many others.

According to PCPC, Gov. Brown’s signature on the final version of the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act achieves critical goals to: 

• Keep existing products on California’s shelves by applying the law only to new products and ingredients that come to market after January 1, 2020;
• Protect public health by making select exemptions for products that undergo animal testing mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other regulators;
• Hold personal care products manufacturers accountable for ensuring animal testing is not performed by their direct suppliers;
• Allow California companies to continue operating in international markets;
• Protect 415,000 California jobs in the personal care products industry; and
• Allow Californians to continue using the personal care products they rely on every day.