A new powerhouse industry trade group is making waves in Europe.
As the threat of an international tariff war escalates and industry regulation tightens across Europe, special interest trade group Value of Beauty is actively trying to strengthen the bargaining power of Europe’s beauty industry.
Founded in 2024, Value of Beauty is led by top conglomerates like L’Oréal Group, parent company to Kiehl’s, CeraVe and NYX; Beiersdorf, which owns Nivea, La Prairie and Aquaphor; and Puig, which counts Charlotte Tilbury, Byredo and Dr. Barbara Sturm as its brands.
The fragrance sector is also well represented with top houses Givaudan, IFF and DSM-Firmenich. Together, these houses make fragrance for Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs, Henry Rose and YSL, and Saint Laurent and Dyptique, respectively.
The group was launched last January in an effort to unite the European beauty and personal care value chain. Its first goal is “to raise awareness of the positive impact the industry has in Europe both at an economic and societal level,” according to Value of Beauty’s website.
“The VOB is a power move by the European beauty industry,” Maggie Spicer, Esq., a Washington D.C.-based attorney and founder of Source Beauty, a firm specializing in environmental compliance support for beauty brands, told Glossy. “They’re trying to pull back the curtain on the complex value chain of the beauty industry to show how deep its roots are [by] emphasizing a critically under-messaged point [that] the beauty industry is incredibly valuable and deserves to be taken seriously.”
In a report published earlier this month, VOB estimates the industry employs more than 3.2 million people in Europe and contributes more than $195 billion to Europe’s GDP while driving more than $76 billion in total taxes paid to E.U. governments.
On March 18, some of the industry’s top CEOs — including L’Oréal Group CEO Nicolas Hieronimus, Beiersdorf CEO Vincent Warnery, IFF CEO Erik Fyrwaldm and many more — met with Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, in Brussels, Belgium, to lobby for a louder voice in industry regulation and trade.
Results are unlikely to arrive quickly. “E.U. advocacy is a long journey,” Brussels-based attorney Mélanie Bruneau, Esq., partner at K&L Gates, told Glossy. “Beauty industry professionals should know that it’s important to be active with E.U. policy-makers and that the topics on the E.U. agenda that can impact the E.U. industry are varied and massive, including the E.U. internal market, trade policy, innovation, job creation, [small- and medium-sized enterprises] and sustainability.”
Last week, during Cosmoprof Bologna, Italy’s largest industry beauty trade show, representatives revealed the report to drum up excitement during a roundtable panel.
According to a prominent New York-based beauty executive who attended Cosmoprof, Value of Beauty was a buzzy topic among attendees. This exec preferred to remain anonymous but shared industry sentiment gleaned from the beauty trade show, which saw 248,000 attendees during its 2024 show.
“Lately, [new EU] regulations have been coming fast and furious and nuanced country by country,” the exec told Glossy. “The Europeans are concerned as many of these regulations affect ingredients and manufacturing, specifically in the E.U. … and would potentially give an unfair advantage to imported products that may not be subject to these added hurdles and costs.”
Inconsistencies in regulation from country to country and continent to continent have long been a pain point in the industry as global trading continues to grow. Like several experts Glossy spoke to, Spicer believes VOB’s growing activity could spur more organizing and lobbying stateside.
“It may spur the U.S. industry to echo similar messaging,” Spicer said. “Especially with the larger regulatory landscape in the United States of new state-level extended producer responsibility laws, chemical restrictions and green claims regulations, ensuring the beauty industry is heard and considered is hugely important.”
The NYC-based exec Glossy spoke to echoed similar sentiments. “We are having similar issues here [in the U.S.] post-MoCRA with conflicts and differences in FDA versus state regulations, banned ingredients, and ERP in Oregon, Colorado and California. … It’s madness, and there is no cohesive or organized plan or discussion.”
Now, just 15 months since MoCRA went into effect, the conversation stateside seems to be bubbling up. “The British Beauty Council and the Personal Care Products Council have both highlighted the industry’s economic value, trends and initiatives for the U.K. and U.S., respectively,” attorney Katherine L. Staba, Esq., a partner at K&L Gates LLP in Chicago, told Glossy. “While the Value of Beauty Alliance focuses on the E.U., the economic impact of the beauty and personal care industry is significant worldwide.”
Stateside, PCPC is the largest and most prominent industry advocacy group and is made up of top U.S. brands and conglomerates. On February 2, Francine Lamoriello, evp of global strategies for PCPC, addressed tariff concerns in a prepared statement.
“[PCPC] has significant concerns with any policy that could increase consumer prices for beauty and personal care products and endanger jobs for U.S. workers,” Lamoriello said. “We will continue to work diligently to inform the Administration and Congress of U.S. trade policies’ impact on our industry and our support for trade policy initiatives that would strengthen and create new global market opportunities for our member companies.”
The experts Glossy spoke to recommend that beauty brands activate around trade groups serving their region, as economic tensions and uncertainty continue.
“It’s important for industry professionals to be part of organizations and trade associations with whom they share the same values and which they feel will make an impact for them and their future,” said Brussels-based lawyer Bruneau.
