© 2020 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. In 1976, the then European Economic Community (EEC) introduced the Cosmetics Directive (Council Directive 76/768/EEC of 27 July 1976) to approximate the laws of the Member States in relation to cosmetic products. The aim of the Directive was two-fold: to guarantee the safety of cosmetic products for human use and thus benefit the consumer, and to encourage commercial exchange between the Member States, with the aim of eliminating barriers to trade. At the time of the Cosmetics Directive, there were no provisions relating to animal welfare in the Community. In the intervening years, a number of amendments were made to the Directive. Most significantly, Directive 2003/15/EC amended the 1976 Directive with the insertion of Article 4a (1), which prohibited the sale of any new or existing product that had been tested on animals. It was a critical juncture in the EU¿s approach to animal welfare as it resulted in a near-total ban on the marketing and testing of animals for cosmetic products. The marketing ban, a ban on the sale of cosmetic products that were tested on animals, was to be incorporated into the legal systems of the Member States by September 2004. However, implementation was postponed as the European Commission and the Council, while advocating a ban on animal testing if validated alternatives exist, objected to a marketing ban on cosmetic goods. Cosmetic product tests regarding repeated dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity, and toxicokinetics, did not yet have validated alternatives to animal testing. The marketing ban in these situations was not implemented until 2013. Provision was given for the deadline to be extended if, by March 2013, there were nonanimal alternatives were still unavailable.