Cheap cosmetics bought by tourists are often fakes

Jul 16, 2009, 14:33 GMT

Hamburg - Some tourists return home with their luggage full of expensive perfumes and other cosmetics found at bargain prices at bazaars in the countries they visited.

But the items are often knockoffs of brand-name products, and consumers should be aware that such illegal copying supports not only organized crime, but when it comes to cosmetics, it can expose the consumer to great health risks.

'In Europe we have strict cosmetic guidelines meant primarily to protect consumers from something that could damage their health,' said Elmar Keldenich of Germany's association of perfumeries in Recklinghausen. Product forgers, of course, don't necessarily follow such standards.

'The products are mixed in moveable laboratories, sometimes in unhygienic conditions, at low cost, with the end result resembling the original product at first glance,' said Keldenich.

The result: In the perfumes, makeup and lotions are ingredients that are not only forbidden, but can also be harmful.

'Urine as a preservative is hardly the worst thing,' said Keldenich. 'But ask yourself if you would really like smearing that on your face.'

It can be even worse, as Hannes Koeblitz of a Berlin organization against product and trademark piracy.

'Ingredients such as paint thinner have been found in close inspections of pirated products,' Koeblitz said. 'Or sunscreens with no UV protection at all.' In these cases it gets really dangerous. 'The seller of a knockoff is not interested in customer loyalty. It doesn't matter to him at all if the buyer gets a sunburn or rash.'

Not every knockoff, of course, leads to a serious illness. But they often do cause damage in other small ways, said Keldenich, an expert in cosmetics. The most harmless example might be the scent of a perfume evaporating within a few minutes. 'But many coloured knockoff perfumes leave traces on the clothes or corrode jewellery.'

The knockoff perfume's small bottles also are typically cheaply made, which make them more vulnerable inside a suitcase. They can break and spill their contents on the items in the rest of the bag. Consumers who buy only packaged material also are not always on the safe side. In the worst case the consumer discovers that a bottle of perfume is full of water when she opens it at home.

It's not so easy to recognize counterfeit cosmetics. Product pirates have become extremely professional. Their goods are optically barely recognizable as fakes to someone not trained to recognize them, said Keldenich. The clearest indicator is a very low price.

Vacationers should never buy cosmetics at a bazaar or open market, rather in a perfumery. Such stores all across Europe must at least meet, in terms of sales standards, certain requirements.

There's also the moral aspect of buying knockoffs. The quick returns that can be achieved though piracy have now become higher than those gained through drug dealing, said Keldenich. This damages not only the national economy, which loses a portion of its income, but also simultaneously promotes organized crime worldwide.

'Money paid out for knockoffs is money that flows directly to the mafia,' said Koeblitz.

The value of counterfeit cosmetics confiscated by German customs authorities in 2008 was 13.2 million euros (18.4 million dollars), said Martin Ruppmann, a spokesman for Germany's association of cosmetic manufacturers. That's an increase of 370 per cent over the previous year. Most of the faked cosmetics came from Vietnam, China and Turkey, the customs statistics show.

Despite this information it is not illegal in Germany to use phoney perfumes, but it can be different in other countries, Koeblitz said.

'In Switzerland and in France the purchase of counterfeit items is punishable as a misdemeanour,' he said. 'And in Italy it is a criminal offence and consumers who are caught by the police can expect to have to pay a small fine.'

At that point the supposed bargain in fact becomes very expensive.