CPSR for Private Label Brands: Getting a Valid Report When You Do Not Hold the Formula

Private label is the fastest way into cosmetics: a manufacturer offers a proven base, you choose a fragrance, a colour and a jar, your brand goes on the front, and the product is on sale in weeks. What the speed conceals is that Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 and the UK regulation enforced through the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 attach responsibility to the person whose name appears on the label. That person is the Responsible Person, must ensure a CPSR exists for the product as sold, must hold the Product Information File and must notify the product, and none of those duties moves to the manufacturer because the manufacturer knows the formula and the brand does not. The Office for Product Safety and Standards will ask the brand, not the factory.

This guide explains how a private label brand meets the CPSR requirement without owning the formula: who is responsible in each arrangement, when the manufacturer's report is enough and when it is not, how confidential disclosure to an assessor works, what the brand must hold in its PIF, how variants and changes are handled, and the clauses that belong in every private label contract.

Who is the Responsible Person in private label

The regulation makes the manufacturer the Responsible Person for a product manufactured in the market, but defines the manufacturer as the person who manufactures or has a product designed or manufactured and markets it under their name or trademark. A brand that has a product made by a contract manufacturer and sells it under its own name is therefore the manufacturer for regulatory purposes and the Responsible Person by default. The contract manufacturer can agree in writing to take the role instead, and some do for their private label clients, but absent that written mandate the responsibility sits with the brand. Check your contract: if it is silent, the responsibility is yours.

When the manufacturer's CPSR is enough, and when it is not

Manufacturers usually hold a CPSR for each base they offer. That report is valuable but it covers what it assessed: the base formula, often unfragranced or with a set of pre approved fragrances, in the manufacturer's packaging, with the manufacturer's generic label and no claims. Your product differs from that in exactly the ways that made it yours. If you added a fragrance not in the report, chose a different jar, wrote your own claims or sell in a market the report did not assess, the manufacturer's CPSR does not cover your product. If your product is the base exactly as assessed, with a fragrance from the report's list at the permitted level, in the assessed packaging, with a label carrying the Part B warnings and no new claims, in the assessed market, then the manufacturer's report can serve as yours, provided you obtain a copy with its supporting documents and hold it in your PIF, and provided the manufacturer commits to tell you before anything in it changes.

How the assessment happens without you seeing the formula

Manufacturers protect their formulas, and they are entitled to. The regulation does not require the brand to know the formula; it requires a qualified assessor to assess it and the Responsible Person to hold the resulting report. Three arrangements are common. In the first, the manufacturer's own assessor extends the base report to your product, assessing your fragrance, packaging and claims, and issues an addendum in your name; you hold the addendum and the base report, and the formula never leaves the manufacturer. In the second, the manufacturer discloses the formula under a confidentiality agreement directly to your chosen assessor, who prepares your report; you receive a report whose Part A composition table may be redacted in your copy while the full version is held under confidentiality, or is held by your Responsible Person service. In the third, the manufacturer discloses to you under non disclosure and you commission the assessment normally. All three are workable. What is not workable is a product assessed by nobody because the brand cannot see the formula and the manufacturer will not act.

Phoenix regularly acts as the confidential assessor under the second arrangement, and as Responsible Person holding the full file where the brand prefers not to.

The PIF is yours

Whoever assesses the product, the Product Information File is the Responsible Person's to build and hold for ten years. For a private label brand its five sections draw on both parties. The product description, label artwork, notification references and claims evidence are yours. The CPSR is the manufacturer's report plus your addendum, or your own report. The manufacturing method, GMP statement and batch records must come from the manufacturer, and the contract must oblige them to provide batch records for every batch supplied to you so that traceability exists. The animal testing statement needs the manufacturer's confirmation for the product and the raw materials. Our PIF template shows the structure, and our article on PIF versus CPSR explains why the report alone is not enough.

Fragrance and colour variants

The point at which most private label brands depart from the manufacturer's report is fragrance. A manufacturer may list twenty pre assessed fragrances at set levels; choosing one of those keeps you inside the report. Bringing your own fragrance, or asking for a higher level, takes you outside it and requires your fragrance's IFRA certificate and allergen statement to be assessed at constituent level and the allergen declaration for your label to be determined. Colours and glitters raise similar questions, especially for lip and eye products where permitted colourants are restricted. Ask the manufacturer for the list of what the base report covers before you choose, and budget for an addendum if you go beyond it.

Change control: protecting your report from the factory's decisions

A private label brand's CPSR is only as stable as the manufacturer's supply chain. If the manufacturer changes the source of an oil, substitutes a preservative blend or reformulates the base slightly to manage costs, the brand's report no longer covers the product, and the brand may never know. The contract must therefore require the manufacturer to notify the brand in advance of any change to the formula, any ingredient or any supplier, to hold the change until the brand's assessor has reviewed it, and to provide the new documents. Without this clause the brand is selling on faith.

Ready made bases versus bespoke manufacture

Private label spans a range from off the shelf bases with your label to bespoke formulas developed for you by a contract manufacturer. The compliance logic is the same across the range but the practicalities differ. With an off the shelf base, the manufacturer's report and its variant list define what you can do without an addendum, and the question is whether you stay inside it. With a bespoke formula, there is no pre existing report for your product, and the CPSR must be commissioned for it from the start, usually by agreement between you and the manufacturer as to who pays and who holds it. Bespoke development also raises intellectual property questions about who owns the formula and whether you could take it to another manufacturer, which affect whether you or the manufacturer will hold the full formula in the long term, and therefore how the assessment and the PIF are arranged.

When the manufacturer is outside the UK or EU

Many private label bases are made in Asia or the United States. In that case you are also an importer, which reinforces rather than changes the position: you are the Responsible Person, the manufacturer's home market assessment does not satisfy Annex I, the formula must be screened against the UK and EU annexes, and all the disclosure and change control considerations apply with the added distance and language issues of an overseas supplier. Our guide to CPSR for imported cosmetics covers the import specific points.

Notification and label

The brand notifies the product through SCPN or CPNP as Responsible Person; the manufacturer's notification, if any, of its own products does not cover yours. The label carries your name and address as Responsible Person, the INCI list from the assessed formula, the allergen declarations and the warnings Part B requires for your variant. The manufacturer will usually supply the INCI list; have it checked against the report, because a list built from the base without your fragrance's allergens is a common error.

A checklist before you sign with a manufacturer

• Ask which of their bases have current CPSRs, signed by whom, and see a sample Part B.
• Ask which fragrances, colours and packs the reports cover, and at what levels.
• Ask how they handle a client's own fragrance or claim: addendum, price and timescale.
• Ask how they disclose the formula to an assessor and under what confidentiality.
• Ask for their GMP statement and a sample batch record.
• •      Ask how they will notify you of changes and whether they will hold changes pending your review.
• Ask whether they will act as Responsible Person and on what terms, or whether you will.
• Ask which markets their reports cover and whether they can support dual market assessment.

What to put in the contract

• Responsible Person designation. Who holds the role, in writing.
• Access to the CPSR. A copy of the base report and its supporting documents, and any addendum in your name.
• Formula disclosure mechanism. To your assessor under confidentiality, if not to you.
• •      Document supply. GMP statement, batch records for every batch, raw material documents, animal testing statement.
• Change control. Advance notice and hold on any formula, ingredient or supplier change.
• Variant process. How new fragrances and colours are assessed and who pays.
• Market scope. Which markets the report covers and how new ones are added.
• Liability and insurance. Reflecting the allocation of responsibility.

A brand entering private label for the first time gets the most value from a consultation before signing with a manufacturer, when the contract can still be shaped, and the multiple variant CPSR is the natural instrument for a private label range across several fragrances.

Official sources and legislation

•  Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products
• Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013
• OPSS guidance on cosmetic products regulations
• Office for Product Safety and Standards
• Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS)

Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal advice. Regulations change and product decisions depend on your exact formulation, claims and market. Have your product assessed by a qualified professional before sale.