PRESS RELEASE

COSMETICS: COMPETITION AUTHORITY APPLIES SANCTIONS TO ESTÉE LAUDER CLINIQUE FOR ADVERTISING ANTI-WRINKLE CREAM WITH 400,000 EUROS AND AGREES WITH COMMITMENTS OF L'ORÉAL GROUP

No to comparison with laser treatments.

The effectiveness of an anti-wrinkle cream cannot be compared to that of a laser treatment, a facelift or cosmetic surgery. According to this principle, the Competition Authority, at its meeting of 27 February 2014, with two separate measures, has imposed a fine of 400,000 euros to the Estée Lauder company for misleading advertising, while it accepted making binding the commitments offered by the L'Oréal group.

The first proceedings were conducted against Estée Lauder for the advertising messages that accompany the line of Repairwear Laser products of Clinique brand spread with a plurality of means (internet, TV commercials, print and packaging). Messages contained a comparison between the results obtained with these cosmetics (within certain times emphatically determined) and those related to treatment of aesthetic medicine. This comparison is made in order to induce consumers to buy, even on the basis of the lowest costs and the absence of contraindications with respect to the use of laser.

In particular, the studies produced to support the correctness of the messages were deemed unreliable by the expert appointed by the Authority since the comparison between the two percentages of wrinkle improvement was detected in non-homogeneous levels: on the one hand, a group that underwent medical laser therapy and, on the other hand, a sample of women treated with cosmetic cream. The survey also showed that the two anti-wrinkle remedies have different mechanisms of action, methods of use and effectiveness and in no way comparable. The company will now have to communicate, within 60 days, the measures adopted to comply with the notice to the company that prohibits the continuation of the advertisements with misleading results.

The outcome of the proceeding in respect of L'Oréal was different, in consideration of the commitment made to the Authority to avoid, in the context of future advertising campaigns of all its cosmetics, any comparison between the efficacy of the same with treatments of other nature, particularly of medicine and cosmetic surgery.

L'Oréal will also change the advertising campaigns and packaging of the products belonging to the Revitalift Laser X3 I eliminating not only the reference to the laser treatment but also the boast of the percentage of improvement of the skin and the time required to obtain it. As a result of the intervention of the Competition Authority advertising conveyed in Italy may also be partially different from that in other countries.

Rome, 18 March 2014