Advertising a cosmetic product on social media needs no prior authorization in Italy or anywhere else in the EU. What is tightly controlled is the claim itself. Under Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 and Regulation (EU) 655/2013, a claim is any text, name, trademark, image or figurative sign that attributes a characteristic or a function to the product, and it is regulated the same way whatever the medium: a fifteen-second video, a creator's caption and the printed carton sit under one identical rule set. Before you brief anything, the evidence for the claim has to already exist in the product information file.
This guide covers where the legal boundary between a cosmetic and a medicinal product sits, the six common criteria every claim must satisfy, why the product information file is the real gatekeeper, the special rules for free-from and hypoallergenic, how creator content inherits every constraint, the platform policies that are stricter than the law, what Italy actually sanctions, and when social is simply the wrong channel.
Cosmetic or medicinal product: the line you cannot cross
Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 defines a cosmetic product by its function: it is applied to the external parts of the body, teeth or oral mucous membranes to clean, perfume, change the appearance, protect, keep in good condition or correct body odours. Article 20 then governs claims, prohibiting text, names, trademarks, pictures and figurative signs that attribute characteristics or functions the product does not have.
The practical risk is not exaggeration, it is reclassification. A product presented as preventing, treating or curing a disease is being presented as a medicinal product, which places it under an entirely different authorization regime that no cosmetic dossier satisfies. Acne, rosacea, psoriasis, dermatitis and hair loss are the words that most often move a skincare campaign across that line, and a creator saying them on camera moves it just as effectively as a label would.
The six common criteria
Regulation (EU) 655/2013 sets out, in its Annex, the common criteria that every cosmetic claim in the EU has to satisfy: legal compliance, truthfulness, evidential support, honesty, fairness and informed decision-making. Two of them cause most of the real-world failures.
Legal compliance means a claim cannot present compliance with a legal requirement as a distinguishing benefit. Since animal testing for cosmetics is already banned across the EU, and since prohibited substances are prohibited for everyone, advertising either as your product's advantage is itself a breach of the criteria.
Fairness means claims must not denigrate competitors or ingredients that are legally used. This is the criterion that catches a large share of ingredient-shaming creative, where the selling proposition is that a common, perfectly lawful ingredient is dangerous.
The claim lives in the product information file
Article 4 of Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 assigns responsibility for every product placed on the EU market to a designated responsible person, and Article 11 requires that person to hold a product information file. Regulation (EU) 655/2013 closes the loop: the responsible person must ensure the wording of the claim complies with the common criteria and is consistent with the documentation demonstrating the effect in that file.
Read that in the order the work actually happens and the sequence inverts what most brands do. You do not write the campaign line and then look for support. The supporting evidence defines the set of sentences the campaign is allowed to use, and any wording a creator improvises outside that set is unsupported by definition.
Free-from and hypoallergenic have their own rules
The European Commission's technical document on cosmetic claims added dedicated guidance for two claim families, applicable since July 2019. Free-from claims should not be used for ingredients that are already prohibited, nor to disparage an ingredient that is lawfully used, nor where the ingredient is not typically present in that type of product anyway. Hypoallergenic may be used only where the product has been designed to minimize its allergenic potential, evidenced by scientifically robust and statistically reliable data, and the product must not contain known allergens or allergen precursors.
These are guidelines rather than regulation in their own right, but they are the interpretation regulators and self-regulatory bodies work from, so treating them as optional is a poor bet.
Creator content is advertising, with the same evidence burden
Regulation (EU) 655/2013 applies to claims regardless of the medium or type of marketing tool used. A creator video is therefore a claim carrier exactly like a label, and the responsible person's obligation to hold supporting evidence does not lapse because someone else spoke the words.
On top of the claim rules sits transparency. AGCOM's influencer guidelines, adopted with resolution 7/24/CONS in January 2024 and amended by resolution 197/25/CONS in July 2025, require a clear and immediate disclosure of a paid or incentivized relationship; free product, a discount, a fee or a reward all trigger it. IAP's Digital Chart points the same way for self-regulation, and AGCM pursues undisclosed advertising as an unfair commercial practice. If you reward customers or creators for posting, disclose the reward, never condition it on a positive opinion, and give them the authorized wording rather than a free hand.
Platform policy is a second, stricter filter
Meta's advertising policy on personal health and appearance restricts before-and-after imagery used to depict idealized results and prohibits creative built on making the viewer feel bad about their appearance. TikTok's healthcare advertising policy rules out claims that a product treats, cures or prevents a medical condition, and TikTok Shop's prohibited products list excludes products intended to bleach, whiten or lighten skin while permitting brightening, even-tone and dark-spot wording. Requirements differ by market and are revised without notice, so verify each policy in the markets where you actually publish.
What Italy sanctions
Italy's national sanction regime for the Cosmetics Regulation is Legislative Decree 204/2015. A responsible person who uses, in labelling, market presentation or advertising, wording, names, trademarks, images or other signs attributing characteristics or functions the product does not possess faces an administrative fine that starts at 500 euro. Enforcement of cosmetic products on the market sits with the Ministry of Health and the local health authorities, and the Consumer Code adds a parallel route through AGCM for misleading commercial practices. Cosmetic advertising is not cleared in advance by anyone, which means the first external review you receive can be an enforcement file.
A creative framework that survives review
The campaigns that clear review usually stop arguing a dermatological case. Start from the supported wording, verbatim, and build the creative around it rather than around a condition. Sell texture, ritual, format, scent, sourcing and how the product fits a routine, which are genuinely differentiating and almost entirely unregulated. Use testimonials for experience, never for outcome. Keep an approval file per asset recording the claim, the evidence in the product information file that supports it, and the disclosure used. Give creators a claim sheet, not a mood board, because an unsupported improvisation is the brand's liability, not theirs.
When social is the wrong channel
If the product's whole proposition rests on a claim your evidence does not support, social will not fix it: you will spend budget circling the message you actually want to make. If your category is one platforms restrict outright, no amount of careful writing reopens that door. And if you cannot name, for each asset, the document that supports the claim on screen, the responsible move is to fix the dossier before spending, not after.
Running incentivized content inside the rules
Regulated categories do not need a different channel, they need a different control layer: which products may appear, what a creator is allowed to say, and what a reward can be attached to. TikJoy applies per-industry rules to incentivized content and messaging so restricted products stay out of the loop automatically. Whatever tooling you use, the requirement is the same: a written link, asset by asset, between the claim on screen and the evidence that supports it.
This is not legal advice. Cosmetic claim rules, Commission guidance and platform policies all change. Verify the current text of Regulation (EC) 1223/2009, Regulation (EU) 655/2013 and Legislative Decree 204/2015, and have campaigns in regulated categories reviewed by a qualified professional before publication (guidance current as of July 2026).