The German company BASF Grenzach has failed to establish that there was an urgent need to postpone the execution of the decision of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) requiring it to carry out animal tests, the General Court of the EU (EGC) stated in an order of its president, Marc Jaeger, returned on Thursday 13 July (case T-125/17).
In September 2014, the ECHA ordered BASF Grenzach to carry out three studies into triclosan, an antibacterial used in potentially toxic cosmetic products and suspected of acting as an endocrine disruptor.
The German company was asked to carry out three types of studies: - simulation tests on ultimate breakdown in surface freshwater and seawater ('persistency assessment'); - a neuro-toxicity study for development and reproduction in rats; - a trial on the sexual development of fish.
Following the appeal brought by the German company, the agency's board of appeal upheld ECHA's first decision proroguing the submission of the requested studies until 26 December 2018.
BASF Grenzach appealled to the General Court of the EU for the decision of the board of appeal to be overturned. It also applied for interim measures to suspend the execution of the decision on the three tests, invoking the risk of serious and irreparable harm, in particular of a financial nature.
The president of the General Court rejected the application for interim measures on the grounds that the German company had not established the urgent nature of the interim measures applied for. He found that the risk of lawsuits over a possible breach of the regulation on cosmetics, which bans animal testing, is purely hypothetical.
As regards the risk related to the loss of the European triclosan market, the president of the EGC reiterated that exceptional circumstances notwithstanding, a financial risk is not irreparable. He explained that BASF Grenzach would have had to prove that in the absence of interim measures, it would be in a situation of financial disaster. It did not, however, provide the slightest financial information regarding itself or on the importance of triclosan in its product range or for its turnover, Jaeger observed. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)