Conflict of Interest Statement

1. Act in Good Faith. To further the mission of the Cosmetic Ingredient Review (“CIR”) and the Expert Panel for Cosmetic ingredient Safety (the “Expert Panel”) and to act responsibly for the benefit of the cosmetic industry and consumers of its goods and services, each member of the Expert Panel (“Member”) shall exercise the utmost good faith in the performance of his/her responsibilities as a member of the Expert Panel. The term “cosmetic industry” includes manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, vendors, customers, partners, affiliates, consultants and advisors in the field of cosmetics.

2. No Personal Benefit. In performing his/her duties, a Member should not be influenced by desire for personal benefit for himself/herself or for his/her family members. No Member shall use his/her position, or knowledge gained therefrom, for personal benefit for himself/herself or for his/her family members (as defined below).

3. No Conflict of Interest. Each Member shall avoid both a conflict of interest and the appearance of a conflict of interest¹. At the same time, some conflicts of interest are insignificant and/or not relevant to the work of the Expert Panel. Thus, once disclosed, not every conflict of interest will preclude a person from participating in and/or voting on Expert Panel matters. (See section 7.d. below on waivers of conflicts of interest by the Chair or majority of Expert Panel Members.)

The term “conflict of interest” means a situation in which a Member has a direct or indirect financial interest or any other personal interest of any kind which would preclude or appear to preclude such individual from exercising impartial judgment or otherwise acting in the best interest of CIR.

Financial interests are monetary, such as wages, honoraria, stipends, stock, stock options, ownership, royalties, property, devices, and anything with monetary value.

An indirect financial interest arises where participating in a matter before the Expert Panel could affect the financial interests of a family member (i.e., spouse, partner or significant other, children, or parents); an organization which a Member serves as an officer, director, trustee, partner, major shareholder, or employee; or an organization with which a Member is negotiating with for future employment. Personal interests can include a wide variety of non-financial interests that may affect a Member’s ability to be impartial, to include things such as authorship, product development, promotions, appointments, honors and loyalties to other entities.

A conflict of interest is relevant if it bears significantly on issues of importance to CIR and the Expert Panel. Whether the financial magnitude of a conflict of interest is significant enough to bar participation and/or voting by a Member cannot always be quantified in advance and is therefore a judgment call to be made in each situation by the Chair or a majority of the Members of the Expert Panel.

For a non-exhaustive list of situations that could cause a conflict of interest and require disclosure, see the definition of “Disclosure Situation” in Section 7.c. below.

4. No Employment or Consulting. A Member shall not be employed by or engaged as a consultant, advisor or other independent contractor, directly or indirectly, by or for a person or entity in the cosmetic industry with respect to any cosmetic ingredient.

5. No Commercial Ties. Each Member shall not have any commercial ties to persons or entities in the cosmetic industry with respect to any cosmetic ingredient. The term “commercial ties” means a significant financial interest. Commercial ties exclude any work by a Member pursuant to grants, funding or other support from associations connected to the cosmetic industry, provided the Expert Panel is informed of such support and the support is provided to the Member’s institution and not personally to the Member.

6. Agreement to this Conflict of Interest Statement. Upon becoming a member of the Expert Panel, each Member shall sign and date a statement that the Member has read this Conflict of Interest Statement, understands its terms, and agrees to comply with its requirements.

7. Disclosures

1. General Disclosure Statement. Upon becoming a member of the Expert Panel and annually thereafter, each Member shall complete, sign, and date a statement that accurately discloses each Disclosure Situation (as defined below). In the event of a material change of circumstance that makes a Member’s disclosure statement inaccurate or incomplete and necessitates supplementing such statement, the Member promptly shall provide a signed and dated supplemental disclosure statement that accurately discloses each Disclosure Situation. Each disclosure statement and supplemental statement and the information provided in these statements will be treated as confidential.
2. Meeting Disclosure Statement. Before each meeting of the Expert Panel, each Member shall disclose any possible Disclosure Situation related to the subject matter of the meeting.
3. Disclosure Situation. The term “Disclosure Situation” means:
   
   1. The Member or the Member’s family member has (A) an employment relationship with a person or entity in the cosmetic industry, (B) a consulting, advisory or other independent contracting relationship with a person or entity in the cosmetic industry, or (C) has commercial ties to a person or entity in the cosmetic industry, excluding ownership of an indirect interest in an entity in the cosmetic industry, such as ownership through a mutual fund or other indirect, non-controlling interest.
   2. The Member or, to the best of his/her knowledge, the Member’s family member, has received licensing fees, honoraria, stock, stock options, or other equity interests, travel expenses, gratuities, gifts, entertainment, loans, or money with a value in excess of $2,000 per year from any person or entity in the cosmetic industry within the past 12 months.
      
      The Member becomes aware of any other circumstance that may adversely affect the Member’s ability to exercise impartial judgement or otherwise act in the best interest of CIR.
   3. The term “family member” means a spouse, partner, or significant other, son or daughter, and parent.
4. Meeting Disclosure Procedure. Where, in the sole judgment of the individual Member, disclosure of a potential conflict of interest involves revealing sensitive or confidential information, a meeting’s disclosure may be limited initially to legal counsel for the Expert Panel, who will then decide whether further disclosure or recusal by the Member with respect to that matter is required. Any such confidential disclosure to legal counsel shall not become part of the Expert Panel minutes that are available to the public. All other non-confidential disclosures of actual or potential conflicts of interest shall be made to the Chair at the beginning of the Expert Panel meeting.
   
   Unless the conflict of interest is waived by the Chair or a majority of the Members of the Expert Panel because it is deemed insignificant or not relevant, a Member having a conflict of interest on any matter shall not vote on the matter. When a Member is barred by actual or apparent conflict of interest from voting on a matter, ordinarily the Member should not participate in or attend discussion of the matter at an Expert Panel meeting unless the Chair or a majority of the Members of the Expert Panel determines that the conflicted person’s participation would be useful in allowing the Expert Panel to better understand the matter in question.
5. Failure to Disclose. Failure of a Member to knowingly comply with the Expert Panel’s disclosure requirements may be considered cause for removal of the Member from the Expert Panel.

8. Public Activities. Members of the Expert Panel are viewed as experts and are often invited to speak to gatherings of the academic community or the general public. To avoid possible confusion or misunderstanding, Members who address such groups should clearly indicate that their views are their own, unless the Chair of the Expert Panel has granted them approval to speak publicly on behalf of the Expert Panel. The Chair of the Expert Panel has the authority to speak publicly on behalf of the Expert Panel, unless otherwise directed by the CIR Steering Committee.

¹ CIR Procedures are modeled after the conflict of interest rules for special government employees/advisory committee members; nevertheless, they have been modified where necessary and appropriate to apply to this non-governmental Expert Panel. This Conflicts of Interest Statement does not attempt to summarize the complex conflicts rules and many exceptions applicable to special government employees, some of which can at best only be applied by rough analogy to Expert Panel Members. A simplified summary of special government employee conflicts rules can be found at https://www.justice.gov/jmd/summary-government-ethics-rules-special-government-employees/, while a more robust summary of such rules can be found at https://www.oge.gov/Web/OGE.nsf/0/DDABAE34F0273E5F85257E96005FBDDE/$FILE/00×1.pdf