Jean-Paul Agon

After his move from chief executive to board chairman, Jean-Paul Agon's remuneration and pension arrangements continued to attract investor scrutiny. In 2022, an institutional investor voted against his remuneration, criticising insufficient transparency regarding some objectives, duplication of criteria and a lack of sufficiently explicit malus or clawback mechanisms.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

In 2014, the Competition Authority fined L'Oréal €189.5 million in a major case concerning coordination between personal care and household product manufacturers over prices and negotiations with major retailers. Following several appeals, the sanction was ultimately upheld.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Direct responsibility

L'Oréal Paris dropped model and activist Munroe Bergdorf in 2017 following statements published after the Charlottesville events. In 2020, when the group expressed support for Black Lives Matter, Bergdorf accused L'Oréal of hypocrisy and recalled her removal.

State of the evidence

Documented

In June 2020, L'Oréal announced that it would remove the terms 'white/whitening', 'fair/fairness' and 'light/lightening' from certain products and communications amid worldwide criticism of colourism and cosmetics marketed as skin-lightening.

State of the evidence

Documented

In 2016, Lancôme cancelled a promotional concert by pro-democracy Hong Kong singer Denise Ho following a pressure and boycott campaign in mainland China. The decision prompted demonstrations in Hong Kong and accusations of yielding to Chinese political censorship.

State of the evidence

Documented

During the Bettencourt affair, a minority shareholder challenged an artistic and philanthropic advisory contract with François-Marie Banier, remunerated at several hundred thousand euros annually. Jean-Paul Agon publicly defended the existence of services genuinely provided before L'Oréal eventually terminated the contract.

State of the evidence

Documented

In 2007, the Paris Court of Appeal convicted Garnier, a L'Oréal subsidiary, and intermediaries in a racial discrimination case concerning recruitment of hostesses for a promotional campaign in 2000. Instructions had led to a preference for applicants described as 'BBR', meaning 'blue-white-red'.

State of the evidence

Established by a court

Attribution

Direct responsibility

Role of the person profiled

Protagonist not prosecuted

Following Garnier's conviction, Jean-Paul Agon called the decision 'profoundly unfair' and defended the group's diversity policy, explaining that L'Oréal voluntarily practised a form of 'positive discrimination' and that certain candidates with names of foreign origin had a greater chance of being recruited.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Personally implicated