Summary of Action

On June 30, 2014, the FTC announced that it had reached a settlement with L’Oréal over charges of deceptive advertising of its Lancôme Génifique and L’Oréal Paris Youth Code skincare products. According to the FTC’s complaint, L’Oréal made false and unsubstantiated claims that its Génifique and Youth Code products provided “clinically proven” anti-aging benefits by targeting users’ genes.

While the proposed settlement prohibits the cosmetic giant from making certain claims without proper substantiation, L’Oréal was not required to pay any monetary penalties. Believing that such a settlement is not in consumers’ best interest, on July 23, 2014, TINA.org filed an objection urging the Commission to, among other things, require L’Oréal to pay a monetary penalty for its deceptive advertising campaigns.

However, on September 24, 2014, the FTC entered a final order approving the settlement, despite not providing consumers any relief for having been deceived by L’Oréal’s marketing.