A Trading Standards Inspection of Your Cosmetic Business: What Happens, What They Ask For, and How to Be Ready in an Afternoon

The officer bought a lip balm from the stall on Saturday, paid for it, took a receipt and left. On Wednesday a letter arrived asking for the Product Information File, the Cosmetic Product Safety Report and the label artwork for that lip balm, within fourteen days. Most makers meet Trading Standards this way, through a test purchase they did not notice at the time, and the letter is the moment the words compliance and file stop being abstract. Enforcement of cosmetics law in Great Britain is shared between local authority Trading Standards services and the Office for Product Safety and Standards, using powers under the Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013 and the investigatory powers in Schedule 5 to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, to enforce Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as retained in UK law.

This guide takes the mystery out of the letter and the visit. It explains who enforces and how they choose whom to inspect, the powers officers have and what you must and need not do, how a visit or a document request unfolds, exactly which documents are asked for and in what order they are read, the findings that come up most often, what happens next from advice to prosecution, how online sellers are inspected without ever seeing an officer, a worked example of the lip balm letter, and how to be genuinely ready in an afternoon. The letter is not a threat. It is a request for the file you are supposed to have anyway.

Who enforces, and how they choose

Local authority Trading Standards services enforce cosmetics law in their areas, inspecting shops, markets and manufacturers and responding to complaints. OPSS coordinates nationally, runs market surveillance programmes, handles online and cross border matters, and takes on cases with national significance. Inspections are triggered by complaints from consumers or competitors, by reports of reactions, by programmes targeting a product category such as children's products or hand made cosmetics, by online sweeps of marketplaces, and by routine visits to markets and fairs. A small brand is not too small to be noticed; market stalls are among the easiest places to inspect, and online marketplaces are among the easiest places to test purchase. A brand that has been trading for two years without contact has been lucky, not invisible.

The powers officers have

Under Schedule 5 to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, enforcement officers may enter business premises at reasonable times, with notice in most cases and without notice where notice would defeat the purpose, and may enter domestic premises used for business with a warrant. They may inspect products, purchase products as a consumer would, take samples, require the production of documents and take copies, and seize products where they reasonably suspect a breach. They may require any person to give information. Obstructing an officer, failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a requirement, or giving false information are offences in themselves, separate from any breach of cosmetics law. In practice officers are courteous, explain their powers, and prefer cooperation; the powers exist for the businesses that refuse it.

How a visit or a request unfolds

A document request by letter or email names the product, states the legal basis, lists the documents required and gives a period, commonly fourteen to twenty eight days. A visit begins with the officer identifying themselves, explaining the purpose, and looking at products: picking up a jar, reading the label, asking what is in it and who is responsible for it. From the label the officer moves to the file. Can you produce the Product Information File for this product? Is the CPSR signed by a qualified assessor? Does the label carry what the regulation requires? Has the product been notified? Who is the Responsible Person and is the address on the label where the file is held? Officers work from a checklist and the checklist follows the regulation's structure. A prepared business answers each question with a document; an unprepared one answers with an explanation, and explanations are not evidence.

The documents they ask for, in the order they are read

The findings that come up most often

• No PIF, or a CPSR alone. The commonest finding of all among small brands.
• Label failures. Missing batch code, missing Responsible Person address, no allergen declaration, PAO or best before wrong, warnings from Part B absent.
• Unsigned or unqualified CPSR. A report from a company with no named qualified assessor.
• CPSR does not cover the product as sold. A new scent, a different supplier, a changed formula.
• No notification. Or notification of a different version.
• Medicinal claims. On the label, the website or social media.
• No batch records. No traceability.
• Responsible Person address wrong. A website, a fulfilment centre or no address.

Notice that none of these is a dangerous product. Officers rarely find a product that harms; they find a business that cannot show it has done the work. The remedy is almost always to do the work, and the consequences scale with how far the business is from having done it.

What happens next

For minor and readily corrected breaches, an officer will typically give advice and a period to comply, followed by a check. For more significant breaches, the officer may serve a compliance or improvement notice requiring specified steps by a date, a suspension notice preventing sale of a product for a period, or a withdrawal or recall notice for a product presenting a risk. Products may be seized. Where a business fails to comply with notices, sells products without a CPSR after being told, makes medicinal claims persistently or obstructs officers, prosecution follows, and the offences under the enforcement regulations carry fines and, for the most serious, imprisonment. The path from letter to prosecution is long and the business controls how far along it it travels; cooperation, prompt correction and a demonstrable system stop most matters at advice.

What officers are actually trying to establish

It helps to understand the inspection from the officer's side. They are not trying to catch a maker out on a technicality; they are trying to establish four things quickly. Is there a person responsible for this product, and can I find them? Has a qualified person assessed this product as safe? Does the label tell the consumer what the law says it must? Can this business trace and, if necessary, withdraw the product? Each of the documents in the table above answers one of those questions, and a maker who frames their file around the four questions rather than around a list of documents will find the conversation short. Officers also assess the business's attitude: a maker who knows what the requirements are and has most of them in place, with a gap they are already fixing, is treated very differently from one who has never heard of a PIF.

After the inspection: closing the loop

Whatever the outcome, write it down. Record the date, the officer's name and authority, what was examined, what was said, what was requested and by when, and what you did. If advice was given, act on it and confirm in writing that you have. If a notice was served, comply within the period and keep the evidence. If the officer found nothing, keep the letter that says so; it is a useful document for insurers and marketplaces. Log the whole event in the PIF change log for any product involved. Then use the inspection as the prompt to check every other product against the same questions, because an officer who found one label error will assume there are others, and the next test purchase may be of a different product.

Online sellers: inspected without a visit

Etsy shops, Amazon listings, Shopify stores and Instagram brands are inspected through test purchases and desk checks. An officer buys the product, examines it and the label, reviews the listing for claims, and writes to the seller at the address on the label or the marketplace. Marketplaces themselves increasingly act as a first line, suspending listings that cannot produce a CPSR on request, and OPSS works with platforms on sweeps. A seller with no physical premises is no less inspectable, and the same documents are required. Our guides to who needs a CPSR and cosmetic claims cover the two points online sellers most often fail on.

A worked example: the lip balm letter

The maker with the Saturday test purchase has, as it happens, done the work. She replies within three days with a PDF of the lip balm's PIF: cover sheet and change log, product description with label artwork and SCPN reference, the CPSR signed by a named assessor with her qualification, the supplier documents, the manufacturing method and GMP statement with the batch record for the batch the officer bought, a claims table, and the animal testing statement. The officer's reply notes one point: the label's allergen declaration lists three allergens and Part B lists four, because a fragrance supplier change six months earlier was assessed by addendum but the label was not reprinted. That is a labelling breach. The officer asks for it to be corrected on the next print run within a stated period and for the existing stock to be overstickered, and confirms no further action. Total cost: a sheet of stickers and an afternoon. Had the reply been a CPSR alone, or nothing, the letter would have been the first of several.

How to be ready in an afternoon

• Assemble a PIF for every product. Five sections, one folder each, using our template.
• Check every CPSR's signature page. Named assessor, qualification, date; covers every variant sold.
• Print current label artwork into each file. And compare it with Part B.
• Confirm notification references. And that they match the product as sold.
• Put a completed batch record in each file. For the batches currently on sale.
• Write a two paragraph procedure. Who answers a request, where the files are, who calls the assessor.
• Check the Responsible Person address. On the label, at the place the files are held.
• Search your website and social media for medicinal claims. And remove them.

During a visit: practical conduct

• Ask for identification and the purpose. Officers expect it.
• Be courteous and cooperative. Obstruction is an offence and never helps.
• Produce documents; do not narrate. The file answers the question.
• Take notes. What was asked, what was shown, what was said.
• Do not guess. If you do not know, say you will confirm in writing.
• Ask what happens next and when. And follow up in writing.

Myths we hear

• Trading Standards only inspect big companies. Market stalls and Etsy shops are the easiest to inspect.
• If I have a CPSR I am fine. The first request is for the PIF; the CPSR is one section.
• They need a warrant to talk to me. They need a warrant for a home; a request for documents needs nothing.
• A visit means prosecution. Most visits end in advice or a correction notice.
• I can refuse to hand over my formula. The PIF must be produced; the officer is bound by confidentiality.

What to do this week

• Pick your bestseller and assemble its complete PIF.
• Compare its label with Part B of its CPSR.
• Do the same for every other product, one per evening.
• Write the request procedure and pin it up.
• Diarise a six monthly self inspection using the table above.

Phoenix builds inspection ready Product Information Files and holds them as Responsible Person where a brand prefers, and a consultation will review your files against exactly the checklist an officer uses. The Saturday purchase and the Wednesday letter are coming for every brand eventually. The only question is what is in the folder.

Official sources and legislation

• Cosmetic Products Enforcement Regulations 2013
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, Schedule 5
• Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products
• Office for Product Safety and Standards
• OPSS guidance on cosmetic products regulations

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.