In a press release dated 10 January 2023, the French Federation of Beauty Companies (FEBEA), which gathers manufacturers of cosmetic products, 82% of which are VSEs/SMEs, calls on members of parliament to support the bill aiming at securing the supply of consumer products to the French, currently being debated in the National Assembly, and to extend the supervision of super-promotions to non-food products.
For the FEBEA, at a time when trade negotiations are more tense than ever, MP Frédéric Descrozaille’s bill makes it possible to rebalance trade relations and correct several dysfunctions and side effects of the Egalim law, while preserving the purchasing power of the French.
By limiting promotions on food products, the Egalim law has in fact caused distributors to shift their super-promotions to non-food products, particularly products in the hygiene and beauty section.
Result: with aggressive discounts of 60%, 70%, sometimes 80% on shower gels or shampoos, cosmetics have become the call products of supermarkets to attract customers, and thus the new adjustment variables of the system. And this even though hygiene and beauty products only represent 8% of consumer goods.
Regulating super-promotions on non-food products
Manufacturers of these products, whether they are large groups, SMEs or very small companies, are currently caught in an impossible economic equation, between a historic rise in their costs and uninterrupted downward pressure on prices from distributors.
To put an end to this untenable situation, the FEBEA supports the amendments aiming to extend to non-food products the 34% limit on promotions that currently exists for food products. It recalls that it is the distributors …
