Italy investigates Sephora over marketing cosmetics to children

March 27 (Reuters) - Make-up retail giant Sephora is under investigation in Italy over marketing adult beauty products to children, which the Italian competition authority says is fuelling an obsession with skincare among minors, including some under 10 years old.

The authority, AGCM, said it was the first European regulator to open an investigation over concerns that LVMH-owned LVMH.PA brands Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics are using very young micro-influencers on social media to promote premature use of adult cosmetics. This, it said, is encouraging compulsive purchasing of face masks, serums and anti-ageing creams, behaviours it linked to "cosmeticorexia" - an unhealthy fixation with skincare among minors.

Sephora, Benefit Cosmetics, and LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics Italy said in a statement that they "operate in strict compliance with the applicable regulations” and will fully cooperate with the authorities. They declined to give any further comment.

Sephora, which has more than 20 million Instagram followers and 2.1 million followers on TikTok, has been at the centre of the "Sephora Kids" social media trend, which documents children making cosmetic "smoothies" in stores and sharing their skincare routines or Sephora "haul" purchases in videos.

The "Haul from Sephora for Kids" tag on TikTok shows hundreds of videos of children as young as five buying make-up and skincare products in Sephora stores.

"The investigations were opened over concerns that important information – such as warnings and precautions for cosmetics not intended for, or tested on, minors – may have been omitted or presented in a misleading manner," AGCM said in a statement, adding that children under the age of 10 to 12 were among those the brands are targeting.

Frequent use of a wide range of cosmetics by minors without proper awareness may be harmful to their health, the regulator said.

AGCM officials and the Italian financial police carried out inspections at the premises of Sephora Italia, LVMH Profumi e Cosmetici Italia and LVMH Italia on Thursday, the authority said.