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The European Commission Recommendation on the Efficacy of Sunscreen Products

In 2006, the European Commission issued a recommendation on the efficacy of sunscreen products and the claims made for them. Industry liaised with the Commission on this recommendation.

Through this Recommendation, the European Commission and industry seek to further ensure that sun products protect consumers against both UVB and UVA radiation, and that there are easy-to-understand efficacy levels based on standard criteria. These attributes, it states, should be accompanied by labelling that helps consumers to choose the appropriate product and apply it correctly.

Sun protection product labelling

The main indictor of sun protection on sunscreen product packaging is the SPF.

The following labelled categories and their corresponding range of sun protection factors are set out in the EC Recommendation:

European Commission system for SPF labelling
Labelled categoryLabelled sun protection factor (SPF)
Low protection   
 6
10
Medium protection15
20
25
High protection30
50
Very High protection50+
It is important that sunscreens protect against both UVB and UVA radiation. The cosmetics industry considers that the UVA protection of a product should be in relation to its SPF.  Therefore industry worked closely with the European Commission, and COLIPA proposed a UVA labelling symbol. This indicates that the level of UVA protection provided by a product is at least 1/3 ratio of its SPF.

Manufacturers will show that their products meet the SPF/UVAPF ratio by displaying the letters “UVA” inside a circle whose diameter should not exceed the height of the SPF number.

In 2007, companies began progressively phasing in the UVA symbol on product packaging across Europe.