Cosmetics in Europe: the responsible person on your label
Skincare, haircare and make-up brands from the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan or Australia can sell in the EU once a named company in the EU takes on the role of responsible person, with its name and address on every product. A service company can take that role for a fee, while brands that sell larger volumes usually give it to their own European company. That company can also act as importer and keep stock in the Netherlands, and we set it up for you.
Ask about your situationUnder the EU Cosmetics Regulation, every cosmetic product needs a responsible person, a company established in the EU that is appointed before the product goes on sale. That company keeps the product information file with the safety report, notifies the product in the EU notification portal (CPNP), puts its name and address on the label and answers questions from the authorities.
For products made outside the EU, the importer is the responsible person by law, although it can appoint another EU company by a written mandate that the appointed company signs to accept the role. We set up the Dutch company that can act as your responsible person and importer, and work with cosmetic safety assessors and regulatory partners on the product files.
Tell us what you make or sell, where your company is and what you plan in Europe. Our team looks at it and replies with the steps and the dates that apply to you.
Who does what
We set up and manage the Dutch company. Specialist partners do the licence and product work. We are your only contact, with one file for all the work.
Your company
- Own the brand, the formulas and the supplier contracts
- Provide the formula, the stability and microbiological data and the label artwork
- Decide the countries, the channels and the price
- Sign the power of attorney at a notary in your own country
The Dutch company
- Set up the Dutch company (a BV), by power of attorney, with the notary
- Registration with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (KVK), tax number, VAT number and the customs number (EORI)
- Bank account, the Article 23 licence, bookkeeping and VAT returns
- Single point of contact for the safety assessor, the warehouse and the authority
Licences and product rules
- The cosmetic product safety report by a qualified safety assessor
- The product information file and the CPNP notification
- Ingredient checks against the EU lists and label and claims review
- Packaging registration and reporting in each country
- Warehousing and fulfilment for the EU from the Netherlands
The steps to the European market
What happens from your first question to the day your first product is on the European market.
- You tell us what you make, where it is made, how many products you have and which countries and channels you want, and we propose a suitable structure.
- The notary sets up the BV by power of attorney with the parent as shareholder, after which you receive the KVK number, the tax number, the VAT number and the customs number while we prepare the bank application.
- Your Dutch company becomes the responsible person and the importer, and you add its name and address and the country of origin to your label artwork.
- The safety assessor writes the safety report for each product, and the partner builds the product information file and notifies each product in the CPNP.
- Your company reports its packaging under the Dutch packaging scheme once it exceeds 50,000 kg a year, and registers in each other country where you sell.
- You keep stock in a Dutch warehouse and ship orders across the EU, your own company sends the invoices, and we keep the books and file the VAT returns, with one monthly overview and one contact person for you.
What the responsible person does
The responsible person guarantees that a cosmetic product on the EU market meets the rules, and its name and address appear on the packaging, together with the country of origin for an imported product (Article 19(1)(a)). For every product it keeps a product information file (PIF) at that address for ten years after the last batch. The most important part of that file is the cosmetic product safety report (CPSR), written by a safety assessor with a recognised qualification in pharmacy, toxicology, medicine or a similar field.
Before the product goes on sale, the responsible person notifies it in the Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP) with the product name, the category, the formula frame (a standard description of the formula), the label and a photo, which poison centres and market surveillance authorities read in the portal. The responsible person also checks that the product is made under good manufacturing practice (ISO 22716), that the ingredients are allowed and that the claims on the pack are truthful, and it reports serious undesirable effects to the authority.
A service company or your own European company
A responsible person service charges a fee per product or per year, which makes it the quick option for a brand that starts with a few products, sells through marketplaces or wants to test Europe first. The service company’s name then appears on your label and the service company keeps your files, so a change of provider means changing every label and transferring every notification.
For a brand with larger sales in Europe, your own Dutch company can act as responsible person and importer at the same time, with your name on the label and the product files and safety reports owned by you. You keep stock in the Netherlands, close to Germany, France and the Benelux, and with the Article 23 licence you pay €0 import VAT at the border because you declare it in your VAT return. You can still hire a safety assessor and a regulatory specialist for the technical work.
Marketplaces such as Amazon often ask for the responsible person before a listing goes live in the EU, and when the responsible person belongs to your own group, the same company is named for every marketplace and every country.
Supervision and other rules in the Netherlands
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) supervises cosmetics on the Dutch market and inspects labels, claims and product files. It publishes its information on cosmetics in Dutch and normally writes its official letters and decisions in Dutch too, while the Dutch trade register and the tax office offer information in English and send most of their forms and letters in Dutch.
On top of the cosmetics rules come the EU packaging regulation (PPWR) and the Dutch producer responsibility scheme for packaging (Verpact), both of which apply to the company that first places the packaged product on the market. In the Netherlands, a company reports to Verpact once it places more than 50,000 kg of packaging on the market a year, and every other country requires its own registration, as our guide to the packaging rules after 12 August 2026 explains.
A Dutch company pays 19% corporate tax on the first €200,000 of profit and 25.8% on the rest, and dividends that your Dutch company pays to a parent company in a treaty country are usually free of Dutch dividend tax. Our guide to setting up a subsidiary in Europe covers the tax side in more detail.
Based on Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, the Dutch Commodities Act (Warenwet) and the guidance of the NVWA, as applied in September 2026. Specialised partners prepare the product files, and we coordinate their work.
Common questions
Ask about your own situation
Tell us what you make or sell, where your company is and which countries you want to sell in. Our team replies with advice.
Related guides
More guides about selling in Europe.