Recently, LVMH Fragrance Brands (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (referred to as “LVMH”) has applied for compulsory enforcement to the Shanghai High People’s Court against L’Oréal (China) Co., Ltd. (referred to as “L’Oréal”) for its failure to fulfill the obligations stated in the court verdict, which required the company to “publicly publish a statement on its official website and homepage on Chinese social media Weibo for 15 consecutive days to eliminate the impact.”
According to the first-instance civil ruling, both LVMH and L’Oréal are engaged in the production and sale of cosmetics, making them competitors in the same industry. LVMH’s Dior Prestige series products have a relatively high level of recognition.
The Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court stated that there were certain similarities in elements, composition, color combinations, and shooting effects between the promotional images of LVMH and L’Oréal’s products. In particular, the placement and shooting techniques of the Little Bees image and the color combinations of the selected landscape images were almost identical. These similarities appeared in L’Oréal’s advertising campaigns for the same series of products during the same period, making it difficult to explain them as coincidences or reasonable use. Therefore, it was determined that L’Oréal had infringed upon LVMH’s rights and engaged in unfair competition.
After the court’s review, the final verdict ordered L’Oréal to immediately cease the involved unfair competition behaviors upon the verdict’s effective date. L’Oréal was also instructed to compensate LVMH for economic losses and reasonable expenses amounting to 1.2 million yuan within ten days from the verdict’s effective date. Additionally, L’Oréal was required to publicly publish a statement on its official website and Weibo homepage for 15 consecutive days, starting from the verdict’s effective date, to eliminate the impact.
