It is generally known to practitioners in the cosmetics industry that the Thai Cosmetic Act requires registration of specially controlled cosmetics prior to an act of manufacture, sale, or import. Similarly, any business operators who wish to manufacture or import controlled cosmetics must notify the Thai Food and Drug Administration of the required information according to the law. General cosmetics, meaning those which neither contain controlled or specially controlled substances nor qualify as specially controlled cosmetics or controlled cosmetics by way of Ministry Announcement, have traditionally been subject to lenient requirements such as label control prior to marketing activity. This practice changed, however, when the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) issued an Announcement regarding the Definition of Controlled Cosmetics on July 8, 2008. This recently issued MoPH Announcement, on one hand, will no longer provide leniency to general cosmetics manufacturers and importers. On the other hand, this Announcement will relieve the burdens that had previously been placed upon the manufacturers and importers of specially controlled cosmetics.
