Italy investigates Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over marketing to children

This is the sign on the front of a Sephora store in Pittsburgh on Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The Italian competition authority AGCM has launched two investigations into LVMH-owned Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over possible unfair commercial practices linked to the marketing of products for adults to children and adolescents, it said on Friday.

AGCM said it was concerned the brands were using very young micro-influencers on social media to encourage premature use of adult cosmetics and compulsive purchasing of face masks, serums and anti-aging creams, habits linked with “cosmeticorexia” - an obsession with skincare among minors.

LVMH, Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

“The investigations were opened over concerns that important information – such as warnings and precautions for cosmetics not intended for, or tested on, minors – may have been omitted or presented in a misleading manner,” AGCM said in a statement.

Frequent use of a wide range of cosmetics by minors without proper awareness may be harmful to their health, the regulator said.

AGCM officials and the Italian financial police carried out inspections at the premises of Sephora Italia, LVMH Profumi e Cosmetici Italia and LVMH Italia on Thursday, the authority said.

Reporting by Enrico Sciacovelli and Helen Reid, Editing by Jan Harvey and Barbara Lewis, Reuters