Karmactive Staff
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
A sunscreen product branded “Bubble” was stopped at the UK border this month after the Office for Product Safety and Standards found its labelling did not meet the rules.
The agency published a product-safety report on August 17 covering the Bubble Cosmetics Sunscreen Pack, described as various sunscreen products in a yellow cardboard box and originating in the United States. The agency rated the risk as high and said the import was rejected at the border by Trading Standards.
The problem was not that the sunscreen was dangerous in itself. The report says multiple mandatory cosmetic labelling requirements were not met, including omissions around sunscreen use instructions and product traceability. That means buyers might not get the information they need to use the product properly, and regulators could not track it effectively if a problem appeared later. The product fails Regulation (EC) 1223/2009, the Cosmetics Regulation that still governs UK cosmetic imports.
Because the goods were turned away at the border, they never reached UK shops or consumers. This is different from a store recall, where a faulty item is pulled from shelves after sale. In this case the control worked at the front door.
