NY Judge Dismisses Sephora ‘Clean Beauty’ Lawsuit

In a newly-issued decision and order, Judge David Hurd of the US District Court for the Northern District of New York granted Sephora’s motion to dismiss the false advertising, fraud and breach of warranty lawsuit waged against it, finding that based on Plaintiff Lindsay Finster’s proposed class action complaint, the LVMH-owned beauty retailer did not make misleading claims about its “Clean at Sephora” label. Sephora is owned by LVMH.

In November 2022, Finster filed suit against the beauty retailer. She accused Sephora of violating New York General Business Law (“GBL”) sections 349 and 350, which prohibit companies from carrying out “deceptive acts or practices and false advertising,” and various state consumer fraud acts, and engaging in fraud, breach of warranty and unjust enrichment.

Finster argued that she read and relied on the “Clean at Sephora” seal to believe that cosmetics bearing the seal did not contain any ingredients that were synthetic nor “connected to causing physical harm or irritation.” The problem, according to Finster, is that Sephora “made materially false, misleading, and deceptive representations and omissions when it claimed its ‘Clean at Sephora’ cosmetics were ‘clean’” when they contain “synthetic and harmful ingredients.” 

In its decision, the court found that Finster could not identify any “express or implicit fact or promise by Sephora that its ‘Clean at Sephora’ cosmetics were free of all synthetic or harmful ingredients,” thereby, causing her claims under the New York Uniform Commercial Code and Magnuson Moss Warranty Act to fail. At the same time, Finster’s fraud claim is also deficient because she “has not identified a material, false statement,” and therefore, “has not plausibly alleged that Sephora made material, false statements or intended to defraud consumers,” according to the judge.

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