Vanya’s Blog

French cosmetics major L’Oreal has won a lawsuit against several companies which copied scents of perfumes of famous brands. Though it might have been a win for the company, the judge in the case said he regarded the outcome of the suit as a loss for poor consumers.
And I agree. I personally do not think that I would buy some product just because it is cheap. Big companies with famous brands do not need to worry about losing the fans of their products just because another company has copied from them. The copied products at cheaper prices will go to an entirely different group of consumers who cannot afford the real expensive brands.
I do not believe that the people who can buy L’Oreal originals will decide for another unknown brand just for the smaller price. People are known to be so much influenced by labels, especially in certain higher classes of society, that a big company would not have to be worried about some cheap copies.
Poor people cannot pay for the expensive products and their only chance of getting even close to using a well-smelling perfume is to buy a cheap copy.
If one’s poor does it mean that he or she should not be allowed to look or smell good?! I think the question here is not so much about revenues but about dignity. Some people have no choice in life. They cannot just start making more money. There is an old story tale about the queen or a king who said “Let them eat cake then” when his advisors told him the people are on the streets because they don’t have bread.
The story with L’Oreal is like that I think.

(If you are interested in the whole story about L’Oreal you could read it on ft.com if you have a subscription for the paper. Observing the request of FT not to copy or link directly to their articles on the web, I did not include a link to the L’Oreal story. Copyrights are everything these days )