Controversies
Involvement in fascism by L'Oréal key figures
L'Oréal has conceded that its founder, Eugène Schueller, was a Nazi sympathizer and antisemitic fascist. He was also a member of La Cagoule, a violent, pro-fascist and anti-communist organisation. During the occupation of France in World War II, Its founder formed Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire (MSR, Social Revolutionary Movement), a political party which collaborated with the Vichy government. Schueller provided financial support for La Cagoule, and allowed some of the group's meetings to be held at L'Oréal headquarters. La Cagoule perpetrated crimes including firearms transportation, assassinating a former minister, and firebombing six synagogues. L'Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after World War II, such as Jacques Corrèze, who served as CEO of the United States operation.
Another controversy arose after Jean Frydman, a shareholder and board member of Paravision, a film subsidiary of L'Oréal, was fired. He claims that he was let go because L'Oréal wanted to avoid an Arab boycott of businesses associated with Jews. In turn, Frydman decided to expose the past of L'Oréal executives. André Bettencourt who married Schueller's daughter, Liliane Bettencourt, and became deputy chairman for L'Oréal, wrote 60 articles for La Terre Française, an antisemitic Nazi propaganda sheet. André has admitted ownership of the propaganda but claimed he was poisoned by the Vichy regime and said, "I have repeatedly expressed my regrets concerning them in public and will always beg the Jewish community to forgive me for them." André Bettencourt also sheltered Schueller and several collaborators from the French Resistance after Liberation. It was also revealed that Eugène Schueller hired Jacques Correze, who was the honorary head of L'Oréal's U.S. affiliate, Cosmair, and was involved with La Cagoule.
Further controversy arose when it was revealed that L'Oréal had its German headquarters for over 30 years, before being sold in 1991, on land confiscated from a Jewish family during World War II. The Jewish family has been battling for restitution from the company for three generations, the latest of which is Edith Rosenfelder, a Holocaust survivor. Fritz Rosenfelder was forced to sell the house to a Nazi official, of which the family never received the proceeds of the sale. Instead, the family was deported. The Allies passed Jewish restitution legislation which states that transactions with Nazis, even if appearing to be with the owner's consent, can be considered invalid. As the land was sold to an offshoot of L'Oréal, which was later bought out in 1961 by L'Oréal, the company claims that it is not responsible for anything that happened before then. The basis for Rosenfelder's argument is that since the original sale was illegal, all subsequent sales are equally unlawful. There was restitution paid in 1951 to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization, though this was done without the family's consent and none of the money ever reached the family. A book by Monica Waitzfelder, daughter of Edith Rosenfelder, published in French as L'Oréal a pris ma maison and in English as L'Oréal stole my house!, details how L'Oréal took over the Waitzfelder home in the German city of Karlsruhe (after the Nazis had engineered the removal of the family) to make it its German headquarters. Monica Waitzfelder is quoted as saying, "All the other businesses which took Jewish property have since returned it, without any great debate. I don't understand why L'Oréal should be any different from the others." A case was brought before the Supreme Court in France, but the public prosecutor ruled that there could be no trial. As of 2007, she is bringing the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Garnier boycott
On 31 July 2014 during Operation Protective Edge launched by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip, the Israel advocacy organisation StandWithUs posted several Facebook photos of care packages, which they said were donated by Garnier Israel to female IDF soldiers. This sparked several calls to boycott Garnier and L'Oréal worldwide. Garnier disavowed the giveaway and stated on its Facebook page, “Garnier USA is aware of recent activity in social media. It is very important to us that our fans know that Garnier worldwide promotes peace and harmony and has a strict policy of not getting involved in any conflict or political matter. Garnier was astonished to discover this in social media. After investigation, the hand-out of about 500 products appeared to be part of a one-time local retailer initiative. Garnier disapproves of this initiative managed strictly at local level and is very sorry to have offended some of its fans.”
Animal testing
L'Oréal began in vitro tissue testing in 1979, and does not test any of its products or ingredients on animals anywhere in the world since 1989–14 years before it was required by regulation. Controversy came from the fact that L'Oréal sells products in China, whose regulators conduct animal testing on cosmetics to be sold within its territory. Even though a ban on animal testing in China came into effect in January 2020, Chinese authorities still perform this practice for imported "ordinary" cosmetics.
Following L'Oréal's 2006 purchase of The Body Shop, which does not support animal testing, The Body Shop's founder Anita Roddick was forced to defend herself against allegations of "abandoning her principles" over L'Oréal's involvement on animal testing. Calls were made for shoppers to boycott The Body Shop. L'Oréal sold The Body Shop to Brazilian group Natura Cosméticos in 2017.
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Racist discrimination lawsuits
On 11 August 2005, the Supreme Court of California ruled that former L'Oréal sales manager Elyse Yanowitz had adequately pleaded a cause of action for retaliatory termination under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, and remanded the case for trial. The case arose out of a 1997 incident in which Jack Wiswall, then the general manager for designer fragrances, allegedly told Yanowitz to fire a dark-skinned sales associate despite the associate's good performance. When Yanowitz refused, Wiswall pointed to a "sexy" blonde-haired woman and said, "God damn it, get me one that looks like that." Wiswall retired as president of the luxury products division of L'Oréal USA at the end of 2006.
The company faced discrimination lawsuits in France related to the hiring of spokesmodels and institutional racism. In 2007, the Garnier division and an external employment agency were fined €30,000 for recruitment practices that intentionally excluded women of colour from promoting its hair wash, "Fructis Style".
L'Oréal continues to sell skin whitening products, which have been criticised as "capitalising on women's insecurities due to colourism." They advertise these controversial products, which have been criticised for promoting a colonial attitude as well as having safety concerns, on its website by claiming; "Achieve clear, translucent and radiant skin. Our skin whitening products work to fade dark spots and brighten skin to give you the fair, flawless complexion you desire."
False advertising
In May 2007, L'Oréal was one of several cosmetic manufacturers (along with Clinique, Estee Lauder, Payot, Lancôme) ordered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia to withdraw advertising regarding the wrinkle removal capabilities of its products.
In the UK, L'Oréal has faced criticism from OFCOM regarding the truth of its advertising and marketing campaigns concerning the product performance of one of its mascara brands. In July 2007, the British Advertising Standards Authority attacked L'Oréal for a television advert on its "Telescopic" mascara, featuring Penélope Cruz, stating, "it will make your eyelashes 60% longer." In fact, it only made the lashes look 60% bigger, by separating and thickening at the roots and by thickening the tips of the lashes. They also failed to state that the model was wearing false eyelashes.
In July 2011, the British Advertising Standards Authority took action against L'Oréal, banning two airbrushed Lancôme advertisements in the UK featuring actress Julia Roberts and supermodel Christy Turlington. The agency issued the ban after British politician Jo Swinson argued that the two ads misrepresented reality and added to the self-image problem amongst females in the UK. L'Oréal acknowledged that the photos had been airbrushed but argued that the two cosmetic products could actually produce the results depicted in the ads and that the results of the products had been scientifically proven.
In June 2014, the company reached an agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission not to make claims about its anti-aging products unless it had credible scientific evidence supporting the claims. The settlement followed an investigation by the commission into claims being made in relation to two products, which the commission described as "false and unsubstantiated".
L'Oréal has a team of 400 members of staff who post content to Facebook every day, according to Marc Menesguen, the company's chief marketing officer.
Patent lawsuit
In July 2017, the University of Massachusetts Medical filed a patent lawsuit against L'Oréal. In August 2017, Dennis Wyrzykowski and his company, Carmel Laboratories LLC, joined the lawsuit. The two parties claimed that L'Oréal's brands used UMass' patented technology for skin creams with the chemical adenosine. In 2021, a judge found the patents invalid. In 2022, the U.S. Appeals Court reversed the decision, stating that UMass could continue to purse its lawsuit.
Corporate misconduct
L'Oréal was fined by Autorité de la concurrence in France in 2016 for price-fixing on personal hygiene products.
Munroe Bergdorf
In August 2017, L'Oréal dismissed Munroe Bergdorf, a mixed-race transgender model, after she responded to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, by stating in a Facebook post: "Honestly I don't have the energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people"; the post was also quoted as saying that "[white people's] existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour", "racism isn't learned, it's inherited and... passed down through privilege" and that "white people" ought to "begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth". Shortly after terminating Bergdorf, L'Oréal released a statement claiming its commitment to "[support] diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion" and had terminated its partnership with Bergdorf because her comments were "at odds with those values".
Amber Heard
In 2018, L'Oréal Paris hired Amber Heard as a Global Ambassador, also giving a special tribute to her. In 2020, after a tape leaked of Heard admitting to having hit her ex-husband Johnny Depp in retaliation to his abuse, several petitions were filed requesting L'Oreal to fire her. As of June 2021, L'Oreal continued to include Heard among a team of "ambassadors" that also includes Kate Winslet, Jane Fonda, Elle Fanning, and French singer-songwriter Yseult. Heard was being sued in a defamation trial by Depp in which he accused her of defamation for identifying herself as a victim of domestic abuse (without naming Depp).
Child labour
In May 2024, a BBC World Service documentary titled "Perfume's Dark Secret" uncovered widespread child labor in Egypt's jasmine fields, an essential source for fragrances used by major beauty brands, including L'Oréal. The investigation exposed that children, some as young as five years old, were engaged in the physically demanding task of picking jasmine flowers. These children worked under grueling conditions, often beginning their shifts at 3 a.m. and working in high temperatures. The documentary highlighted the poverty these children faced, with some earning as little as $1 per day, far below a living wage.
The BBC's findings sparked global concern over labor practices in the perfume industry, particularly regarding the exploitation of children in rural areas of Egypt. The country's jasmine flowers are a key ingredient in high-end perfumes produced by companies like L'Oréal, leading to questions about the ethical sourcing of raw materials in the beauty and fragrance sector. Despite claims by L'Oréal and other luxury brands of strict monitoring systems, the documentary suggested that these children had been overlooked by current auditing processes and that insufficient measures were in place to protect workers from exploitation.
nkd lawsuit
L'Oréal has been in a three-year trademark dispute with a small British hair-removal aftercare company called nkd on the grounds that its name might cause "customer confusion" with the L'Oréal "Naked" line of eyeshadow palettes and other make-up products. The nkd name was created in 2009, one year before the launch of the "Naked" line in the UK. According to Rebecca Dowdeswell, the owner of nkd, "The two brand names are spelt and pronounced differently, so I’ve always been pronounced 'n-k-d', they’ve always been 'naked'." Dowdeswell's trademark for nkd expired in 2019, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic she forgot to renew it until 2022, a failure for which she readily admits responsibility. To date nkd has spent over £30,000 on legal fees and has had to shut down one of its two salons in its struggle with the £170 billion company.
