L’Oréal Class Action Challenges Revitalift’s Wrinkle Repair Claims

A class action lawsuit claims that L’Oréal’s Revitalift skin care line is deceptively marketed as being able to lift and firm skin or repair wrinkles.

L’Oréal offers 17 products in their Revitalift skin care collection, including: Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Eye Treatment; Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Face & Neck Moisturizer; Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Day Moisturizer; Anti-Wrinkle + Firming Night Cream Moisturizer; Cicacream; Triple Power Intensive Skin Revitalizer Serum + Moisturizer; Triple Power Day Lotion Moisturizer; and others.

The Revitalift products are reportedly represented as “anti-wrinkle” and able to “repair wrinkles.” The technology in the products allegedly “helps to reduce wrinkles.” Other products in the line are marketed as “firming” and some are advertised as able to “repair the skin barrier.”

However, plaintiff Nataliya Borchenko claims that L’Oréal makes false promises that are not reflected in the results of the products. Borchenko specifically takes issue with the fact that L’Oréal doesn’t qualify their representations with “appearance” or “look” statements. These loophole statements often allow companies to make bold representations about their products, but L’Oréal allegedly fails to specify that their Revitalift products do not guarantee changes to the skin.

“The ‘anti-wrinkle’, ‘lift’, and ‘firming’ representations on the front of the Product labels […] are stand-alone representations and are not qualified by words such as ‘appearance’ or ‘look’ leading consumers to believe the Products will affect the structure and function of their skin by lifting and firming the skin, thus preventing new wrinkles from forming, and repairing the skin and eliminating existing wrinkles as opposed to temporarily affecting the ‘appearance’ or ‘look’ of the skin and wrinkles,” the Revitalift class action lawsuit states.

Under state and federal regulations, cosmetic products are not as strictly regulated as drugs. However, regulations do exist to govern the advertising companies can use for their products.

If cosmetics make claims that qualify them as skin structure altering drugs, they need pre-approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One exception to this rule is if products conform to a “monograph,” meaning that it uses pre-approved ingredients recognized as safe and is not misbranded.

Borchenko claims that L’Oreal Revitalift products are not excepted from regulations because they do not adhere to monographs of wrinkle prevention, skin lifting, firming, or skin repair. She seeks to hold L’Oreal for allegedly false advertising under federal regulations and the California Sherman Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Law.

Borchenko seeks to represent a Class of consumers from California who purchased any of the Revitalift products.

Borchenko and the proposed Class are represented by Patricia N. Syverson, Manfred P. Muecke, Elaine A. Ryan, and Carrie A. Laliberte of Bonnett Fairbourn Friedman & Balint PC and David N. Lake of Law Offices of David N. Lake.

The Revitalift Anti-Aging Skin Care Line Class Action Lawsuit is Borchenko v. L’Oréal USA Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-01427, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.