FAS warns: cosmetics should not be sold under the guise of medicines
CJSC L'Oreal has submitted to the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS of Russia) a statement and documents confirming that the company has excluded from its contracts for the supply of goods under the trademarks "VICHY" and "LA ROCHE POSAY" provisions that contradict Russian antimonopoly legislation, and is currently in the process of renegotiating these contracts with its customers.Recall that the anti-cartel department, in the process of checking companies operating in the perfumery and cosmetics market, revealed that the contracts for the supply of products of L'Oreal CJSC under the trademarks VICHY and LA ROCHE POSAY contained conditions according to which these goods could only be sold in specialized pharmacy premises with the participation of a consultant with professional knowledge in the field of dermatology.
"In accordance with the current legislation, pharmacies in Russia are intended for the sale of medicines," says Alexander Kinev, head of the Anti–cartel Department of the FAS of Russia. – The products of the company "L'Oreal" in question are perfumery and cosmetic products and they do not belong to medicines. Whether their sale in pharmacies is misleading customers is a separate issue that we have not considered. We considered that these provisions of the contracts could lead to a restriction of competition between economic entities, unreasonably introducing a condition for those wishing to sell these goods to have a pharmacy and an appropriate qualified specialist."
It is worth noting that during the investigation of L'Oreal CJSC, the FAS of Russia interacted with the French national authority for the protection of competition and actively used the information provided by it. The fact is that in the 90-2000 years, similar circumstances have repeatedly become the subject of proceedings between the antimonopoly authority of France and the enterprises of the L'Oreal group of persons.
"The problem is not limited only to the trademarks "VICHY" and "LA ROCHE POSAY", – Alexander Kinev reports. – According to our data, in some pharmacy chains, the share of goods that are not medicines exceeds 70%. Some manufacturers take advantage of the fact that the population has a higher level of confidence in the goods that are sold in pharmacies in the city. Pharmacy chains also have their own interest from this. We will continue to deal with this issue."
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