Anti-aging creams: L’Oréal accused of false advertising

Hard blow for L’Oréal. The French cosmetics group will no longer be able to broadcast advertising touting the rejuvenating nature of some of its cosmetics on American soil. The American competition authority, the FTC, decided so.

Activation of anti-aging genes

The FTC implicates two of L’Oréal’s product lines, the Génifique Lancôme cosmetics and the Youth Code cosmetics. She judged that the advertisements put forward certain rejuvenating effects of the care, without supporting them by tangible scientific evidence.

The relevant advertisements stated that they were based on ten years of medical research. L’Oréal researchers have thus discovered certain genes responsible for the regeneration of the skin and developed a process of activation of the latter, called “GenActiv Technology”. The rejuvenating effects of these cosmetics would be felt after seven days.

Statements contested by the competition authority, which criticizes the rigor of the scientific protocol followed by L’Oréal. She quotes the case of products Genific, which would only have been tested on a small sample of thirty-four women. These were to answer questions about the condition and feel of their skin after eight weeks of use. Too subjective for the FTC.

a amicable agreement was signed between the two parties. It will not give rise to financial penalties.

And in France ?

If the agreement only applies to the United States for the moment, it is not excluded that the French Competition Authority will take up the case, by virtue of article L121-1 of the consumer code, which specifies that false advertising “is based on false claims about the properties of a product“.

However, theOréal defended himself any irregular advertising practices. The group stressed that these advertisements would be changed, and added that the quality and safety of its products had never been questioned by the FTC.