pharmacies suspected of fraud

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– Twelve pharmacies suspected of fraud for selling fake luxury perfumes.

There are pharmacists who defraud Social Security with false invoices. There are those who receive gifts from laboratories. But a few days ago, the crackdown on fraud uncovered a new form of fraud, reports 20 Minutes. During an investigation carried out between 2022 and 2023, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) identified several pharmacies which resold classic perfumes by presenting them as luxury French brand perfumes.

A misleading commercial practice for the DGCCRF which detailed how twelve pharmacies in question associated the properties of each standard perfume they sold “to those of a fragrance marketed by a major luxury brand”. For this they used a concordance table provided by the manufacturer. In its press release, the fraud repression believes that this strategy maintained “the confusion in the minds of consumers between the standard perfumes sold by these pharmacies, and perfumes from brands well known to the general public”.

Up to 300,000 euros fine

The DGCCRF drew up reports and sent them to the competent public prosecutor's offices. The twelve pharmacies identified face fines of up to 300,000 euros. According to the Premium Beauty News site, the concordance table technique is very widespread in the world of perfume, known to be a practice of commercial parasitism. Some manufacturers benefit from the reputation of major brands “without consenting to the marketing and advertising investments necessary to acquire it”. Manufacturers claim in particular that their products are equivalent in their essential characteristics.