A survey conducted by the ARPP (Autorité de régulation Professionnelle de la Publicité), the French advertising self-regulatory organization, on 2459 advertisements for cosmetic products issued in 2015 found a significant increase of the compliance rate, which reached 98.7% versus 97.5 % in 2012 when was conducted the previous survey.

Only 33 advertisements - out of 2459 that were included in the survey - failed to comply with current advertising rules (1.3% of the total).

The compliance review of advertising practices was made on the basis of the criteria defined by the European Regulation No. 655/2013 of 10 July 2013, namely:

- Legal compliance;
- Truthfulness;
- Evidential support;
- Honesty;
- Fairness;
- Informed-decision making.

While formulated differently, these principles are included in the ARPP’s Recommendations, particularly in the Recommendation "Cosmetic Products", which gather the ethical rules to be met by advertisers.

Most of non-compliances identified in the advertisements can be grouped in three main groups:

- Lack of explicit distinction between users’ level of satisfaction and facts derived from scientific studies,
- Excessive the anti-aging claims,
- Claims exceeding the definition of cosmetic product.

The full report is available here (in French).

The European Commission will assess the effective implementation of European common criteria in 2016.