The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) published Avoiding fake beauty products for businesses on 30 October. Developed with the beauty and salon industry, the guide is aimed at salons, practitioners and businesses selling beauty products, to help them avoid using and selling counterfeits and report illicit sellers. It is practical guidance and creates no new legal duties, but it reminds businesses that selling counterfeit products is already illegal and that selling or using them can lead to a Trading Standards investigation and legal repercussions.
Five key points
- Buy from trusted suppliers: the brand itself, an authorised distributor or a trade wholesaler the brand recognises.
- Check who you are buying from, especially on marketplaces, social media and unfamiliar websites.
- Do not rely on price or appearance alone: very low prices are a warning sign, but some fakes are priced only slightly below the genuine product and packaging can be convincing.
- Check products before using or selling them, including packaging, labelling, ingredients and traceability information, and anything that looks, smells or feels unusual.
- If you think a product is fake, do not use or sell it, and report the seller to Trading Standards.
Goods-in checks and what to do with fakes
The guide lists checks on arrival: blurry print or spelling mistakes, and whether the company name and address, ingredients, instructions, weight, safety warnings and batch information are present. Every cosmetic product sold or used on clients in England, Scotland and Wales must have a designated UK Responsible Person whose details appear on the label. The same checks apply to beauty tools and electrical equipment.
If a product looks fake, businesses should stop using and selling it, keep the product, packaging, receipt and supplier details, contact the supplier and report the seller to local Trading Standards through the council or to Citizens Advice. The guide notes that tests have found lead, mercury and methanol in fake cosmetics, that using counterfeit or non-compliant products may affect insurance cover, and that GLP-1 medicines and botulinum toxin are prescription-only medicines, not cosmetics.
J&C recommends that beauty brands entering the UK publish a list of authorised stockists on their website and keep clear batch and traceability details on packaging so that salons and retailers can verify them. Distributors and salons can turn the guide's checks into purchasing and goods-in checklists and keep purchase records, so that if fakes turn up they can stop losses quickly and give the brand evidence for enforcement and reporting.
Source: www.gov.uk
