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R R E E P P O O R R T T
KEy STATISTICS CALL OuT QuOTE:
“Having counterfeit products on the market can
really impact a brand’s reputation and the trust of
its customers...if a customer receives a product that
doesn’t work, they’re more likely to blame the brand’s
manufacturing than to question whether it’s fake.”
- Daniel Shapiro, Vice President of Red Points -
Recent Seizures of Counterfeit beauty
We hear more and more of counterfeit cosmetics seizures.
For example, in the eastern city of Taizhou, Chinese police
seized a massive load of counterfeit cosmetics from several
underground hubs that had a combined street value of $120
million in 2017. Some of the counterfeit brands included
Chanel, Christian Dior, L’Oreal SA’s Lancome, and Estée
Lauder.
In April 2018, the Anti-Piracy Unit was informed that some
vendors in Santee Alley (in Los Angeles) were suspected
of selling counterfeit makeup, so the police purchased
several products, and tested them in an undercover
operation. All the products turned out to be fake, with
high levels of animal waste and bacteria. The police seized
cosmetic products worth $700K. That same year, the
Local Government Association in London also uncovered
hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fake beauty
products of popular brands, including Chanel, MAC, and
Benefit. The chemicals found in several of the counterfeit
goods were said to cause chemical burns and skin rashes;
some products also contained mercury, a highly toxic
chemical.
harmful Ingredients, poor Quality, & Statistics from the IP Crime and Enforcement Report state
waning Customer Confidence that 10,162 cosmetic products alone were seized by Border
Most harmful cosmetics are manufactured in China and Force and Trading Standards in the UK in 2019, with perfume
shipped around the world through third-party sites like reaching a staggering 37,078.
eBay, Amazon, and Alibaba. Fake cosmetics products In January 2020, the LAPD seized more than $300,000 in
are typically created in non-sterile, unhygienic, illegal counterfeit makeup products mimicking Kylie Jenner’s
laboratories that don’t meet legitimate products’ safety company Kylie Cosmetics.
standards.
Lead is one of the most dangerous ingredients used in
counterfeit products. Counterfeit MAC lipsticks have why E-Commerce
been found to contain more than 300 times the permitted fuels Counterfeit Cosmetics
levels of lead. Government investigations have found The growth in counterfeit makeup products is further
fraudulent cosmetics containing known carcinogens such exacerbated by the proliferation of online third-party
as arsenic, beryllium, and cadmium; others have exhibited marketplaces. In June 2000, only 22 percent of Americans
high levels of toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury. reported having made an online purchase compared to 79
As a result of the use of these dangerous ingredients, the percent in December 2016, according to the Pew Research
U.S. Food and Drug Administration received nearly 12,000 Center. This transformation is reflected in the sheer size of
instances of consumers reporting adverse effects tied to the retail e-commerce business, which reported $3.5 trillion
cosmetics from January 2018 to March 2020. in worldwide sales in 2019 and is projected to nearly double
by 2023.
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