{"id":502524,"date":"2026-03-29T23:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502524\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T23:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T23:13:12","slug":"italy-investigates-sephora-and-benefit-over-marketing-skincare-to-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/502524\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy investigates Sephora and Benefit over marketing skincare to children"},"content":{"rendered":"

AGCM said its officers and Italy’s financial police had carried out inspections of LVMH and Sephora’s Italian headquarters on Thursday as part of its investigation.<\/p>\n

It said the firms “may have failed to make clear” the cosmetics they sold were not intended for children, while “appearing instead to have encouraged their purchase through covert marketing strategies involving young micro-influencers” – those with an online following in the thousands. <\/p>\n

The investigation centres on “possible unfair commercial practices” linked to the premature use of adult cosmestics, including “encouraging the compulsive purchase of face masks, serums and anti-aging creams” to children under the age of 10. <\/p>\n

Sephora, which has nearly 23 million followers on Instagram and more than two million on TikTok, has been at the centre of the “Sephora kids” social media trend<\/a>, in which children share their skincare routines and purchases.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of videos show children buying and showing off their skincare products under tags like “Sephora kids haul” and “Sephora kids GRWM [Get Ready With Me]”.<\/p>\n

Both the AGCM and the British Association of Dermatologists have warned that skincare products can be harmful to children. Experts say they can cause irritation, allergic reactions and, in some cases, permanent skin problems.<\/p>\n

The AGCM said important warnings for children on Sephora and Benefit products “may have been omitted or presented in a misleading manner”.<\/p>\n

LVMH, which owns alcohol, fashion and jewellery brands, stated: “All the companies reaffirm their strict compliance with applicable Italian regulations.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AGCM said its officers and Italy’s financial police had carried out inspections of LVMH and Sephora’s Italian headquarters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-502524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}