PETA, Cruelty-Free Europe, and more than 450 companies, brands, and animal protection organizations—including Dove, Simple, and The Body Shop—have sent an open letter to the European Parliament, European Commission, and European Council. The letter urges legislators to uphold the EU Cosmetics Regulation’s animal testing and marketing bans and not allow cosmetics ingredients to be tested on animals under any circumstances.

Since 2009, tests on animals for cosmetics ingredients have been banned in the EU under the Cosmetics Regulation. Likewise, cosmetics products and ingredients that rely on the results of animal tests conducted after 2013 for safety-assessment purposes cannot be sold in the EU.

According to PETA, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), supported by the European Commission and the ECHA Board of Appeal, is demanding new tests on animals for cosmetics ingredients under the guise of the REACH chemicals regulation. PETA feels this completely circumvents the purpose of the Cosmetics Regulation, which is to bring cosmetics safely to market without requiring tests on animals, and puts animals back in laboratories.

Director of Public Affairs for Cruelty-Free Europe Kerry Postlewhite says, “European citizens and their representatives in the European Parliament fought hard for these bans, which have been a model for many other markets. They must be upheld as intended so that animals do not suffer for cosmetics in Europe.”