Florida cosmetics legislation gets two industry endorsements

Generally legislation on manufacturing in Florida is deemed to be liberal, but old rules govern the cosmetics sector, which includes a biennial registration and permitting process on every product, which also includes administration fees.

The proposed amendment comes in the form of two bills – HB 261, introduced by Rep Chris Latvala and SB176 by Sen. Jeff Brandes, which have now been endorsed by the Manufacturers Association of Florida (MAF) and the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC).

MAP and PCPC endorse the Florida bills​

The PCPC made its endorsement last week, while MAF gave its approval as the session to present the legislation wound down at the beginning of this week.

“The cosmetic product registration requirement is outdated, unnecessary, and highly burdensome to Florida’s cosmetics manufacturers,” ​stated Nancy Stephens, MAF executive director in a letter to Senate appropriations chief Tom Lee, and reported on in an article by Floridapolitics.com.

“The passage of SB 176 would repeal this harmful law and would more closely align Florida’s cosmetics regulations with the FDA and our competitor states.”​

HB261 and HB 176 seek to eliminate registration​

Earlier the PCPC government affairs director, Karin Ross, also wrote to Florida state legislators stating that the proposed bills would serve to boost the beauty and personal care industry in the state, which is currently estimated to be worth $11bn.

HB 261 is currently in the hands of the state government operation appropriations subcommittee, which would remove the requirement for product registration for manufactures on packages, repackages, labels, or relabels of cosmetic to be registered biennially with DBPR.

HB 176 is also being considered by the same subcommittee and makes the same proposal to remove the biennial registration requirement.