EU regulatory guide

CPNP Notification: How to File on the Portal, Field by Field

A CPNP notification is the entry a cosmetic product must have on the Cosmetic Products Notification Portal before it is placed on the EU market. It is filed under Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, and it is not an approval — it is a registration that must be complete and accurate before the first sale.

This guide covers the part most pages skip: what the portal actually asks for, who is allowed to enter it, which fields cause rejections, and what the resulting CPNP number, reference and code mean. For the commercial overview of the portal itself, see what CPNP notification is and who files it.

What is a CPNP notification? A CPNP notification is the registration a cosmetic product must have on the EU's Cosmetic Products Notification Portal before it is placed on the market. It is filed by the Responsible Person under Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. It is a registration, not an approval.

A cosmetic product notification being prepared for the EU market

Reviewed by Cassandra Maddocks, chemist & biochemist · last reviewed 26 July 2026

What is the CPNP?

The CPNP is the European Commission's free, EU-wide notification portal for cosmetic products, required by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. One notification covers every EU member state: no further national filing is needed.

New to the topic? Start with our plain-language explainer, What is CPNP?, then come back here for the filing walkthrough.

The portal is operated by the European Commission, and its official information page is published by DG Internal Market. Notification is a record, not an approval: the Commission does not review or clear the product. Compliance remains the responsibility of the product's EU Responsible Person at all times.

Article 13 of Regulation 1223/2009 on EUR-Lex with the electronic notification requirement highlighted
Article 13(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009, the notification requirement, as published on EUR-Lex, consolidation of 1 May 2026 (02009R1223, EN, 040.001). Captured 26 July 2026. View the official text.

What the CPNP portal actually asks for, field by field

The portal is a structured form, not a document upload. Every notification is built from the same field set, and each field has a defined owner. Understanding who owns which field is what prevents a rejected or incomplete filing.

Who enters what

The Responsible Person files the notification. Under Article 13, the notification is made by the Responsible Person established in the EU before the product is placed on the market. A distributor or brand owner cannot file on their own behalf unless they are the Responsible Person.

Where the Responsible Person is a compliance partner acting in that role, the partner holds the portal account and enters the data. The brand supplies the inputs. The distinction matters at audit: the account holder is the party the competent authority contacts.

The field set

Product identification. Product name as it appears on the label, product category, and the product's intended use. The name must match the label exactly — a marketing name on the portal and a different name on pack is a mismatch that surfaces at market surveillance.

Responsible Person details. Legal entity name, registered address, and contact details for the Responsible Person. For non-EU brands, this is the EU-established entity, not the exporting brand.

Product formulation. The qualitative and quantitative composition, expressed to the level required for the notification. This is the field brands are most cautious about, and the portal's access model is built around that caution.

Nanomaterials. Where the product contains nanomaterials, the notification must identify them, specify the nanomaterial and the reasonably foreseeable exposure conditions, and be filed ahead of the standard timeline. Nanomaterial notifications are a separate filing obligation, not a checkbox on the main form.

CMR substances. Where a substance classified as CMR is present, the notification carries the additional identification required by Article 13.

Frame formulation. For products where a frame formulation applies, the notification references the frame rather than the full quantitative formula.

Label and packaging. The product label as it will be placed on the market, and where relevant the packaging, submitted as the notification's visual record.

Responsible Person confirmation. The declaration that the product complies and that the Cosmetic Product Safety Report is in place. This is the field that converts a data entry into a valid notification.

The error patterns that cause rejection or rework

Name mismatch. The product name on the portal differs from the name on the label. The most common cause is a late rebrand that was applied to artwork but not to the notification.

Wrong Responsible Person entity. The notification names the brand or the manufacturer instead of the EU-established Responsible Person. The filing is invalid on its face.

Missing CPSR at filing. The notification is submitted before the Cosmetic Product Safety Report exists. The portal accepts the entry; the product is still non-compliant. See what a Cosmetic Product Safety Report must contain.

Nanomaterial filed on the standard timeline. The nanomaterial notification is treated as part of the ordinary filing and misses its earlier deadline.

Variant handling. Shades and variants are filed as separate products when they share a formulation, or bundled when they do not. Both directions create rework.

Post-market change not notified. A reformulation, a rename or a change of Responsible Person happens without an update to the notification. The portal record goes stale while the product keeps selling.

The practical rule: build the notification from the finished label and the signed safety report, not from the product brief. Every field that can be checked against a document should be checked against that document before submission.

Who files the CPNP notification?

Only the product's EU-established Responsible Person can submit the Article 13 notification. A brand outside the EU cannot file for itself without an EU establishment, and a distributor cannot substitute for the Responsible Person. Distributors have their own, narrower notification duties.

Under Article 13(3), a distributor who translates a label or otherwise makes a product available in a member state under its own initiative also notifies certain details, but this never replaces the Responsible Person's product notification. For the full picture of the EU regime around the notification, see selling in the EU and the complete EU guide.

What information does a CPNP notification contain?

The Article 13 notification covers the product's category and name, the Responsible Person's details, the country of origin for imports, the member state of first placing on the market, a contact person, the presence of nanomaterials and certain CMR substances, the frame formulation, and the original label with a photograph of the packaging.

In practice, the notification is only as ready as the dossier behind it. The formulation details come from the same work that produces the Cosmetic Product Safety Report, and the label you upload should already have passed a label and claims review. A notification that contradicts the label invites market-surveillance questions later.

CPNP notification requirements: the pre-filing checklist

A notification is only as valid as the documents behind it. Work through this list before the portal session, not during it.

Before you open the portal

Responsible Person in place. An EU-established Responsible Person is appointed and has accepted the role in writing. Without this, there is no party entitled to file. See EU Responsible Person.

Cosmetic Product Safety Report signed. The CPSR is complete and signed by a qualified safety assessor. The notification declares that it exists; it must exist first.

Product Information File assembled. The PIF is compiled and held for the product, available to the competent authority on request. See what the Product Information File must contain.

Label finalised and compliant. The label carries the Responsible Person's name and address, the nominal content, the batch code, the PAO or best-before date, the function and the ingredient list in INCI nomenclature. A label review before filing prevents a re-notification after. See label and claims review.

Claims checked. Every claim on pack and in the listing is substantiated and consistent with the formulation.

Nanomaterial status confirmed. You know whether the product contains nanomaterials, because that answer changes both the deadline and the filing route.

CMR status confirmed. You know whether any substance classified as CMR is present, because that answer changes the data the notification must carry.

Frame formulation decision made. You know whether the product can be notified against a frame formulation or requires full quantitative composition.

Product name locked. The name on the portal will match the name on the label. Lock it before filing.

After filing

Number recorded. The assigned CPNP number is stored in the product's compliance file and shared with distributors who ask for it.

Change process defined. Someone owns the trigger for re-notification: reformulation, rename, change of Responsible Person, discontinuation.

UK position checked separately. A CPNP notification does not cover Great Britain. If the product is sold there, it needs a separate notification under the UK SCPN regime. See the SCPN notification guide and the UK cosmetics regulation guide.

If any line above is unresolved, the notification can still be submitted — but it will be a filing that has to be corrected later, and corrections cost more than preparation.

When must the notification be filed?

Before the product is placed on the EU market: selling first and notifying later is not permitted. There is no waiting period or approval step: once the Responsible Person submits the notification, the product may go on sale.

The filing itself takes minutes when the documentation is ready. The realistic timeline is set by everything upstream: appointing the Responsible Person, completing the safety assessment and assembling the Product Information File. Plan those weeks before your launch date, not the notification.

Do nanomaterials need a separate notification?

Yes. Under Article 16 of Regulation 1223/2009, a product containing nanomaterials must be notified to the Commission six months before being placed on the market, through a dedicated CPNP module, in addition to the standard Article 13 notification.

The six-month lead time is the detail that catches brands out: a formulation containing an in-scope nanomaterial effectively adds half a year to the launch runway unless the material is already listed in the regulation's annexes.

Who can see my formula on CPNP?

Access is restricted. CPNP data is available to competent authorities, for market surveillance and enforcement, and to poison centres for medical treatment. Your formulation is not visible to the public or to competitors.

This is the most common confidentiality worry we hear, and the answer is consistent across the EU: the portal exists so that authorities and poison centres can act, not as a public register of formulas.

Does a CPNP notification cover the UK?

No. Since Brexit, Great Britain runs its own notification through the Submit Cosmetic Product Notification service, filed by a UK-established Responsible Person. Northern Ireland stays with the EU regime under the Windsor Framework, so CPNP still applies there.

A brand selling into both markets files twice, with two Responsible Persons. The GB side is covered in the official GOV.UK guidance in our SCPN notification guide, and in our UK cosmetics regulation guide.

What does CPNP notification cost?

The portal itself is free of charge. The real cost sits in what the notification requires: an appointed EU Responsible Person and a completed dossier. CIGREG files notifications at a fixed $150 per product as part of its notifications service.

Full pricing for the surrounding work (the Responsible Person mandate, CPSR and PIF) is on the pricing page.

What happens after notification?

The notification must be kept current. Under Article 13(7), the Responsible Person updates the CPNP record without delay when the notified information changes: a reformulation, a new label, a change of Responsible Person or contact details.

This is why notification is best treated as part of an ongoing compliance system rather than a launch-day task; keeping records current across markets is exactly what Compliance Care exists for.

CPNP number, CPNP reference and CPNP code: what each one is

Three different things get called "the CPNP number". They are not interchangeable, and using the wrong one in a supplier questionnaire or a marketplace listing causes avoidable back-and-forth.

CPNP number

The identifier the portal assigns to a notification when it is successfully submitted. It is the reference a competent authority or a retailer will ask for when they want to confirm that a product has been notified. It is not a product approval number and it does not certify safety.

CPNP reference

The term used for the same identifier when it appears in correspondence, on a distributor request or in a marketplace onboarding form. "CPNP reference" and "CPNP number" usually point to the same portal-assigned value; the difference is the context, not the data.

CPNP code

A code is not a notification identifier. Where "CPNP code" appears, it generally refers to a product category or classification value used inside the portal, or to an internal reference a brand has created for its own records. A CPNP code cannot be used to look up a notification.

CPNP search

There is no public search of CPNP notifications. The portal is not a public register, and the formula data inside it is not visible to competitors or to the general public. Verification of a notification happens through the Responsible Person or through the competent authority, not through a lookup page.

Keep the assigned number with the product's compliance file. When a retailer asks for a CPNP number, they are asking for that value — not for a category code and not for a safety report reference.

Put this into practice

From reading to notifying.

FAQ

CPNP questions brands ask.

No. The notification must be filed by the Responsible Person established in the EU, as required by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. If you are not established in the EU, you need an EU-based Responsible Person in place before any filing can be made. That party holds the portal account and is the contact the competent authority will use.

No. A CPNP notification is a registration, not an authorisation. The portal records that a product has been notified; it does not assess the product, certify its safety or grant permission to sell. Compliance rests on the Cosmetic Product Safety Report, the Product Information File and the label, not on the notification itself.

The portal submission itself is quick once the inputs are ready. The time is spent before filing: the Cosmetic Product Safety Report must be signed, the Product Information File assembled and the label finalised. Filing before those exist produces a notification that has to be corrected later.

It depends on the formulation. Variants that share a formulation and differ only in shade or fragrance can often sit under one notification, while variants with different formulations need their own. The deciding factor is the composition data the notification carries, not the number of SKUs on the shelf.

Access is granted to the Responsible Person, not to the brand. The Responsible Person registers for a portal account and files from it. If you work with a compliance partner acting as your Responsible Person, that partner holds the account and enters the notification on your behalf — you supply the product data and the label.

The CPNP number is the identifier the portal assigns to a notification once it has been successfully submitted. It is the value a retailer, distributor or competent authority asks for when they want to confirm that a product has been notified. It is not an approval number and it does not certify that the product is safe.

In practice, yes. "CPNP reference" is the term used for the same portal-assigned identifier when it appears in correspondence, distributor requests or marketplace onboarding forms. The wording changes with the context; the underlying value does not. A CPNP code is different — it is not a notification identifier.

No. There is no public search of CPNP notifications, and the portal is not a public register. Formula data held in the portal is not visible to competitors or to the general public. Verification of a notification goes through the Responsible Person or the competent authority, not through a lookup page.

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