Ulta Class Action Lawsuit Says Company Resells Used Makeup

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Ulta Beauty Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing the cosmetics company of reselling used cosmetics to consumers who believe the products are new.

Plaintiff Kimberly Laura Smith-Brown of Los Angeles points to a recent disclosure by a former Ulta employee who said that Ulta employees were told by management to repackage items that had been returned by a customer and put them back on the shelf.

According to the Ulta class action lawsuit, a former Ulta employee in January took to Twitter to reveal a “dark secret” about the beauty product retailer. She alleged that products returned to Ulta stores are made to “look new,” but are not sanitized, before they are put back on the shelf.

Dozens of other former and current Ulta employees reportedly echoed the whistleblower’s allegations, confirming that Ulta stores throughout the United States restocked and resold used cosmetics. Many claimed that they would complain to their managers about the unsanitary practices, but their managers would allegedly insist that the returned products be put back on the shelves.

Ulta is reportedly known as a cosmetics store that has the “best return policy,” as consumers are allowed to return products to the store if they are unsatisfied for any reason.

“Despite the widespread internal knowledge of these deceptive, unfair and unsanitary practices, Ulta has continued to deceive consumers for years, repackaging, restocking and reselling used beauty products including cosmetics at full price as if they were new,” Smith-Brown alleges in the Ulta class action lawsuit.

According to the Ulta class action lawsuit, Smith-Brown regularly purchased cosmetics at Ulta, believing that all of the products on the stores’ shelves were unused.

“Ulta’s widespread and surreptitious practice of repackaging, restocking, and commingling used returned cosmetics with new cosmetics on its shelves means that every sale of cosmetics since Ulta began this policy is tainted with the possibility that the customer is purchasing used, dirty cosmetics,” the Ulta class action lawsuit says.

Smith-Brown says that, as a result of Ulta’s deceptive practices, she and other putative Class Members did not receive the products they were promised. She claims that, if she had known that Ulta deceptively repackaged and restocked used cosmetics as if they were new, she would have either paid less for the cosmetics or would not have purchased them at all.

By filing the Ulta class action lawsuit, Smith-Brown seeks to represent herself and a proposed Class of consumers who purchased cosmetics from Ulta Beauty retail locations (not for resale). Smith-Brown also seeks to represent a California subclass.

The Ulta class action lawsuit asserts claims for unjust enrichment and violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law.

Smith-Brown is represented by Theodore B. Bell, Carl V. Malstrom, Janine L. Pollack and Correy A. Kamin of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, and by Lee S. Shalov of McLaughlin & Stern LLP.

The Ulta Used Cosmetics Class Action Lawsuit is Kimberly Laura Smith-Brown v. Ulta Beauty Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-00610, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

UPDATE: On Aug. 6, 2018, Ulta Beauty filed a memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing it of deceptively selling used cosmetics and representing them as new products, claiming that the plaintiffs’ complaint “suffers from three fundamental flaws that cut across each claim.”

UPDATE 2: On Sept. 14, 2018, shoppers asked a judge to reject Ulta’s bid to dismiss their used makeup class action lawsuit saying that the risk of purchasing used makeup is enough to let the complaint go to court, even if each putative Class Member did not unknowingly purchase used makeup.