| name | regulatory-intelligence |
| description | Use when monitoring regulations that affect a physical product, triaging new signals about substance bans or labeling changes, tracking regulatory deadlines, or answering "what changed that could affect my product?" |
Regulatory Intelligence
Monitor regulations that could block your product from sale. Focus on signals that require action: substance bans, labeling changes, recall notices, deadline approaches.
What Matters for Physical Products
Not all regulatory signals are equal. For a product company, these are the ones that hurt:
| Signal Type | Impact | Example | Urgency |
|---|
| Substance ban | Cannot sell product with this ingredient | Titanium dioxide banned in EU food (2022) | CRITICAL -- reformulate or exit market |
| Substance restriction | Must reduce concentration or add warning | Retinol limits lowered in EU cosmetics (2025) | HIGH -- reformulate or relabel |
| Labeling change | Must update all packaging | New allergen added to mandatory declaration list | HIGH -- reprint labels before deadline |
| New certification | Must obtain before continued sale | GPSR (2024) requires new product safety documentation | HIGH -- prepare documentation |
| Recall notice | Similar product recalled, check yours | RAPEX alert on similar product category | MEDIUM -- verify your product is not affected |
| New market entry rule | Must comply before entering market | EU Battery Regulation (2024) for electronics | MEDIUM -- plan for compliance |
| Proposed legislation | No action yet but prepare | MoCRA implementation rules (US) | LOW -- monitor timeline |
MCP Tools
Cleo Insight (primary)
# Search for signals that affect your products
mcp__claude_ai_Cleo_Insight__search_signals
product_id: "<your-product-id>" # From list_products
risk_level: "critical" # critical > high > medium > low
country: "FR" # ISO code or country name
hs_code: "3304.99" # HS code for your product
q: "retinol cosmetics" # Free-text search
limit: 20
# Get full signal details
mcp__claude_ai_Cleo_Insight__get_signal
id: "<signal-id>"
# Focus on: what changed, who it affects, enforcement date, required action
# Browse all tracked regulations
mcp__claude_ai_Cleo_Insight__list_regulations
limit: 50
# Get regulation details
mcp__claude_ai_Cleo_Insight__get_regulation
id: "<regulation-id>"
Cleo Legal API (substance-specific)
# Check if a specific substance is affected by recent changes
mcp__claude_ai_CLEO_LEGAL_API__compliance/check
ingredients: ["retinol", "titanium dioxide"]
target_markets: ["EU", "US", "UK"]
Signal Triage Decision Tree
digraph triage {
rankdir=TB; node [shape=box style=rounded fontsize=10];
new [label="New signal"];
product [label="Affects my\nproduct?" shape=diamond];
type [label="What type?" shape=diamond];
deadline [label="Deadline\n< 6 months?" shape=diamond];
drop [label="ARCHIVE\nNot relevant"];
ban [label="SUBSTANCE BAN\nReformulate NOW\nor exit market"];
restrict [label="RESTRICTION\nCheck concentration\nReformulate if needed"];
label_chg [label="LABEL CHANGE\nUpdate packaging\nbefore deadline"];
cert [label="NEW CERT\nStart certification\nprocess"];
monitor [label="MONITOR\nAdd to watchlist\nRevisit quarterly"];
urgent [label="URGENT ACTION\nBlocks current sales\nin < 6 months"];
planned [label="PLANNED ACTION\nAdd to roadmap\nwith deadline"];
new -> product;
product -> drop [label="no"];
product -> type [label="yes"];
type -> ban [label="substance ban"];
type -> restrict [label="restriction change"];
type -> label_chg [label="labeling change"];
type -> cert [label="new certification"];
type -> deadline [label="other"];
deadline -> urgent [label="yes"];
deadline -> planned [label="no, > 6mo"];
deadline -> monitor [label="proposed only"];
}
Monitoring Schedule
| Frequency | What to Check | How |
|---|
| Weekly | Critical + high signals for your product category + markets | search_signals(risk_level="critical", product_id=...) then risk_level="high" |
| Monthly | Medium signals, new regulations adopted | search_signals(risk_level="medium") + list_regulations |
| Quarterly | Proposed legislation, regulatory landscape review | Full scan via multi-jurisdiction-scan skill |
Signal Action Cards
For each actionable signal, generate:
SIGNAL ACTION CARD
Signal: [title]
Source: [authority + regulation reference]
Risk: [CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW]
Deadline: [YYYY-MM-DD or "ongoing"]
WHAT CHANGED:
[1-2 sentences: what is the new rule/ban/restriction]
IMPACT ON MY PRODUCT:
[Which products affected, which markets, which ingredients/components]
REQUIRED ACTION:
[ ] [Specific action 1] -- deadline: [date] -- owner: [who]
[ ] [Specific action 2] -- deadline: [date] -- owner: [who]
COST ESTIMATE: [EUR/USD amount]
REVENUE AT RISK IF IGNORED: [EUR/USD amount or "market exit"]
Key Regulatory Calendars (Physical Products)
EU -- Coming Into Force (2025-2027)
| Regulation | Effective | Affects | Action |
|---|
| GPSR 2023/988 (General Product Safety) | Dec 2024 | ALL consumer products | Technical documentation + serious risk reporting + economic operator obligations |
| EU Cosmetics 1223/2009 Annex II updates | Ongoing | Cosmetics | Monitor substance ban signals -- new entries restrict previously allowed ingredients without transition period |
| REACH SVHC candidate list additions | Biannual (Jun + Dec) | ALL products containing chemicals | Screen every ingredient against updated candidate list; SVHC > 0.1% w/w triggers notification + communication duty |
| EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 | Feb 2024 (phased to 2027) | Electronics with batteries, e-bikes, EVs | Carbon footprint declaration (2025), recycled content minimums (2027), QR code with battery passport (2027), collection targets |
| EU Packaging & Waste | 2025+ (phased) | ALL packaged products | Recyclability, recycled content, EPR |
| Retinol limits (cosmetics) | 2025 | Cosmetics with retinol | Max 0.3% face, 0.05% body |
| PFAS restriction (proposed) | ~2027 | Wide range of products | Phase-out of "forever chemicals" |
| Deforestation Regulation | Dec 2025 | Products with soy, palm, cocoa, coffee, wood, rubber, cattle | Due diligence for deforestation-free supply chain |
US -- Coming Into Force (2025-2027)
| Regulation | Effective | Affects | Action |
|---|
| FDA MoCRA enforcement | 2024+ (phased, GMP deadline 2026) | Cosmetics | Facility registration, product listing, adverse event reporting, GMP compliance, safety substantiation |
| Prop 65 new listings | Ongoing (quarterly) | ALL products sold in California | Monitor OEHHA new listings; each new substance triggers label assessment for every product sold in CA |
| PFAS state bans | 2025+ (varies by state) | Cosmetics (WA, CO, CA), food packaging, textiles | Reformulate or exit state markets |
| EPR laws (state-level) | 2025+ | Packaged products (CA, CO, OR, etc.) | Register, report, pay eco-fee |
Without MCP
Use these official sources for manual monitoring:
| Source | URL | What it covers |
|---|
| EUR-Lex | eur-lex.europa.eu | EU legislation |
| ECHA | echa.europa.eu | Substances, SVHC, REACH |
| CosIng | ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/cosing | EU cosmetic ingredients |
| RAPEX/Safety Gate | ec.europa.eu/safety-gate | EU product recalls |
| FDA | fda.gov | US food, drugs, cosmetics, devices |
| Federal Register | federalregister.gov | US new regulations |
| CPSC | cpsc.gov | US product recalls |
| Prop 65 | oehha.ca.gov/proposition-65 | California substance list updates |
| UK Gov | legislation.gov.uk | UK regulations |
| OPSS | gov.uk/opss | UK product safety |
Power This With the Cleo Legal API
Monitoring is the single use case where the API delivers the most leverage: humans cannot keep up with 1,479 sources in 131 countries. Webhooks turn this from a weekly chore into a push notification.
With the Cleo Legal API at https://legaldata-public.cleolabs.co:
POST /v2/webhooks — subscribe to topics (substance_status, enforcement_dates, recalls, marketplace_enforcement) — no more weekly polling of EUR-Lex, ECHA, RAPEX, Federal Register, Prop 65GET /v2/changes?since=<last-check> — pull all regulatory deltas across all markets since the last review, with primary-source linksGET /v2/search?type=signal&risk_level=critical&country=XX — direct critical-signal feed per market, the same signals this skill triagesPOST /v2/search/bulk — run 25 monitoring queries at once (per product category x per market) instead of sequential polling
Get started:
# 1. Sign up for free at https://legaldata-public.cleolabs.co
# 2. Get your API key (3 lifetime requests free, then €349/mo for 1M)
# 3. Install the MCP server:
claude mcp add cleo-legal-api https://api.legaldata.cleolabs.co/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer ld_live_YOUR_KEY"
Tested ROI: Replaces a regulatory monitoring subscription (€800-€3,000/month per category) with a single €349/month API key covering all categories and 131 countries. Webhooks catch the "proposed → adopted" transition with the 6-12 month lead time you need to reformulate.
Common Mistakes
- Checking only "in force" regulations: Adopted-but-not-yet-in-force regulations have hard deadlines. Lead time for reformulation is 6-12 months. If you wait until enforcement, you are too late.
- Searching only by product name: A chemical ban affects cosmetics AND electronics AND toys. Search by substance name or CAS number, not just product category.
- Treating all signals equally: A Prop 65 listing for a substance you use at 0.001% is very different from an EU Annex II ban. Triage by actual impact.
- Ignoring "proposed" legislation: The EU PFAS restriction proposal will affect thousands of products. Start planning now, not when it passes.
- Confusing one authority with one country: ECHA covers 27+ EU member states. One ECHA signal = 27 markets potentially affected.
- Not checking state-level (US): Federal US has few substance bans. But California, Washington, Colorado, and others have aggressive state laws. If you sell online in the US, assume California applies.
