You seem to be unaware of the asymmetry of information and competence. This is why consumer protection exists.

Consider the potential for economic growth in private testing services. It's called job creation!

It could, but everybody got an orange tan afterwards.

If it's straightforward to approve new cosmetics, REACH, Cosmetic Products Regulation 1223/2009 updated no latter than this year in regulation 2026/78, ISO 22716 and whatnot still apply

You can find lists of ingredients banned in cosmetics in the EU, or across EVERY industry in general

Perfume manufacturers are the only ones who get away with virtually everything as they don't have to declare their ingredients (but "perfumes" are also an ingredient in a bunch of cosmetics, so here is the loophole as Europe always has loopholes)

Oh yeah, the free market is great at burying problems so consumers remain in the dark.

It already has. That is why you are reading this right now.

Seems like the free market does make this problem go away. This is simply one of the (few) instances where there is a freer market in the EU that in the US

>In the European Union, sunscreens are regulated as cosmetics, which means greater flexibility in approving active ingredients. In the U.S., sunscreens are regulated as drugs, which means getting new ingredients approved is an expensive and time-consuming process. Because they’re treated as cosmetics, European-made sunscreens can draw on a wider variety of ingredients that protect better and are also less oily, less chalky and last longer.

You should take this as an opportunity to reflect on the amount of lives lost as a result of the regulations in place for drugs, in both the EU and US.

If the negative effect is this obvious in sunscreen, just imagine how much more impactful removing regulation on cancer drugs would be.

OP's article is from 2024, according to the date on it

I think a lot of us HN-types are people who like to post riddles like this instead of news about what actually happened.