As California Right to Know Bill Stalls, Industry Looks Toward 2011

The California "Consumer Right to Know Act" (Senate Bill 928), which according to the Fragrance Materials Association (FMA) "effectively calls for the fragrance industry to surrender its intellectual property and disclose individual fragrance formulas," has been held in committee.

The FMA notes that, in its current form, the Act "mandates disclosure of all ingredients in air care, automotive, cleaning, polish and floor maintenance products sold in California. It provides no exemptions for fragrances, levels of ingredient concentrations, or intellectual property protections. This bill undermines the fundamentals of our industry’s business model and threatens irreparable economic harm to FMA member companies."

Of the announcement, Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA) president Chris Cathcart said, “We are pleased to see that we will be able to continue our discussions with Senator Simitian and the other stakeholders on this important issue and hope to reach agreement in 2011. Our association could not support this bill because it did not strike the appropriate balance between transparency about the ingredients in our products and the need to protect our intellectual property.

"What our industry put on the table through our work with Senator [Joe] Simitian and the NGOs would have been the most far-reaching right-to-know mandate required of any industry in the world," Cathcart continued. "We need to work together so that we do not miss another opportunity in 2011."

 

 
 
 
 
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