Cosmetics in Europe: the responsible person on your label
A skincare, haircare or make-up brand from the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan or Australia sells in the EU through one named company: the responsible person. It is printed on every product. A service company can take the role. A brand with real volume usually puts it in its own European company. This page shows both routes and what the Netherlands offers.
Ask about your situationCosmetic products in the EU fall under the Cosmetics Regulation. Before a product goes on sale, a company that is established in the EU must be appointed as its responsible person. That company keeps the product information file with the safety report, notifies the product in the EU portal, puts its name and address on the label, and answers the authorities. For products made outside the EU the importer is the responsible person, unless it appoints another EU company in writing. Holdwise sets up the Dutch company that can be your responsible person and importer, and works with cosmetic safety assessors and regulatory partners for the product files.
On this page: what the responsible person does, what goes in the product file, the notification, when your own company is the better choice, and the steps to the first shipment.
What the responsible person does
The responsible person is the company that guarantees that a cosmetic product on the EU market meets the rules. Its name and address appear on the packaging. For every product it keeps a product information file (PIF) at that address for ten years after the last batch. The heart 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): the product name, the category, the formula frame, the label and a photo. Poison centres and market surveillance authorities read that portal. The responsible person also checks that the product is made under good manufacturing practice (ISO 22716), that the ingredients are allowed, that claims on the pack are honest, and it reports serious undesirable effects to the authority.
For a product made outside the EU, the law appoints the importer as responsible person. The importer can hand the role to another EU company with a written mandate, and that company must accept it in writing.
A service company or your own European company
A responsible person service costs a fee per product or per year. It is the quick route for a brand that starts with a handful of products, sells through marketplaces and wants to test Europe first. The service company is on your label and holds your files. When you change service provider, every label changes and every notification is transferred.
Your own Dutch company is the route for a brand with real volume in Europe. Your company is the responsible person and the importer at the same time. Your name is on the label. The product files and the safety reports are yours. Stock is held in the Netherlands, close to Germany, France and the Benelux, and with the Article 23 licence you pay no import VAT at the border. The safety assessor and the regulatory specialist can still be contracted; the responsibility and the value are in your group.
Marketplaces such as Amazon check the responsible person before a listing goes live in the EU. A responsible person in your own group means one answer that stays the same across every marketplace and every country.
The Dutch side
In the Netherlands the market surveillance authority for cosmetics is the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). It inspects labels, claims and product files and works in English with foreign companies. The Dutch trade register and the tax office work in English too.
Packaging and recycling rules apply on top of the cosmetics rules. The EU packaging regulation (PPWR) and the Dutch producer responsibility scheme for packaging both look at the company that first places the packaged product on the market. Your Dutch company registers once and reports once. Read the packaging rules after 12 August 2026.
A Dutch company pays 19% corporate tax on the first €200,000 of profit and 25.8% above that. Dividends to a parent company in a treaty country usually go out without Dutch dividend tax. Read more on setting up a subsidiary in Europe.
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. Product files are prepared by specialised partners; Holdwise coordinates.
Who does what
Holdwise sets up and runs the Dutch company and stays your single point of contact. Specialist partners do the licence and product work. You keep one contact, one file and one invoice.
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; nobody travels
The Dutch base
- Sets up the Dutch company (a BV), by power of attorney, with the notary
- Registered office, the address that goes on your label
- KVK number, 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 under the Dutch scheme
- Warehousing and fulfilment for the EU from the Netherlands
The route, step by step
What happens from your first question to the day your first product is on the European market.
- One question. You tell us what you make, where it is made, how many products you have and which countries and channels you want. We answer in writing with the structure that fits and one written proposal.
- The Dutch company. The notary sets up the BV by power of attorney with the parent as shareholder. You receive the KVK number, the tax number, the VAT number and the customs number. The bank file starts on day one.
- The role. Your Dutch company becomes the responsible person and the importer. Your label artwork gets the Dutch name and address.
- The files. The safety assessor writes the safety report per product. The partner builds the product information file and notifies each product in the CPNP.
- Packaging. Registration under the Dutch packaging scheme and, where you sell there, the schemes of the other countries.
- Operations. Stock in a Dutch warehouse, orders shipped across the EU, invoices from your own company, VAT and bookkeeping done. One monthly overview, one point of contact.
Related guides
The other parts of the route to Europe, on the same site.
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. You get a written answer. Where a Dutch company fits, we write down what it would look like and what it costs.
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