Garnier France found guilty of racist employment practices

The cosmetic company Garnier and Adecco employment agency were this month found guilty of discrimination following the exposure of ethnically bias recruitment methods. The court overturned a previous acquittal and ruled that the two companies had colluded to only employ caucasian women to sell Garnier Products.

In July 2000, Garnier France, a division of L’Oreal, sought sales representatives to distribute and promote their Fructis Style shampoo in French supermarkets. During the trial, prosecutors revealed a fax memo from Garnier to Adecco in which they specified that the candidates they required should be “BBR” which stands for bleu, blanc and rouge, a code used by far-right and national extremist groups to signify the caucasian French population.

Despite this being the first time a major company has been found guilty of racist discrimination in their recruitment process, Garnier were fined a mere €30,000 (£20,300) whilst Therese Coulange, a former Adecco employee was given a three-month suspended prison sentence.

L’Oreal is the biggest cosmetics company in the world with at least 12 subsidary companies. The company is frequently criticised for its promotion of skin whitening products which disparage ‘dark’ skin and portray it as an affliction indicating inferiority which can be ‘fixed’ through the use of its products. The names of their products include BI-White and White-Perfect which include properties such as the trademarked Melanin-Block. In light of the conviction of its subsidary, L’Oreal is recognised as having a pathological adherence to a racist aesthetic and white supremacist ideology.