Judgment of the General Court of 22 November 2023 – Symrise v ECHA
(Case T-655/20) 1
(REACH – Substance 2-ethylhexyl salicylate – Exclusive use for the manufacture of cosmetic products – Checking the conformity of registrations – Request for additional toxicity studies – Article 41 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 – Prohibition of animal testing – Article 18(1)(d) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 – Article 2(4)(b), Article 14(5)(b) of Regulation No 1907/2006 and Section 3 of Annex – Obligation to state reasons – Manifest error of assessment – Error of law)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Symrise AG (Holzminden, Germany) (represented by: R. Cana and E. Mullier, lawyers)
Defendant: European Chemicals Agency (represented by: W. Broere, L. Bolzonello and A. Deloff-Bialek, acting as Agents)
Interveners in support of the applicant: Cruelty Free Europe (CFE) (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: S. Vandamme, V. McClelland, lawyers, and P. Moser, Barrister), European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients (EFfCI) (Brussels) (represented by: R. Cana and E. Mullier, lawyers), PETA International Science Consortium Ltd (London, United Kingdom) and PETA Science Consortium International eV (Stuttgart, Germany), (represented by: R. Dereškevičiūtė, lawyer, D. Scannell and S. Love, Barristers), Unilever U.K. Central Resources Ltd (London) and Unilever ASCC AG (Schaffhouse, Switzerland) (represented by: J.-P. Montfort, T. Delille and M. Pallu, lawyers)
Re:
By its action under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks annulment of Decision A-010-2018 of the Board of Appeal of the ECHA of 18 August 2020 (‘the contested decision’), relating to the compliance check of its registration dossier for the substance 2-ethylhexyl salicylate (‘the substance at issue’), dismissing its action against the decision of 13 March 2018 by which the ECHA had requested it to provide, inter alia, studies on vertebrate animal.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Dismisses the action;
Orders Symrise AG to pay its own costs as well as those incurred by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), including those relating to the interim proceedings;
Orders Cruelty Free Europe (CFE), PETA International Science Consortium Ltd, PETA Science Consortium International eV, European Federation for Cosmetics Ingredients (EFfCI), Unilever U.K. Central Resources Ltd and Unilever ASCC AG each to pay their own costs.
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1 OJ C 53, 15.2.2021.