Organizational Strategy - Sustainable Development - L'Oréal

9 L’OréaL - GrI DaTa SHEETS 2011
Provisions for liabilities and charges
In millions of Euros 31.12.2011 31.12.2012 31.12.2009
Non-current provisions for liabilities and charges 226,1 181,3 125,6
Provisions for restructuring - - 0,4
Other non-current provisions (1) 226,1 181,3 125,2
Current provisions for liabilities and charges 500,7 536,9 510,0
Provisions for restructuring 93,6 90,6 179,8
Provisions for product returns 219,2 209,4 174,6
Other current provisions (1) (2) 187,9 236,9 155,5
Total 726,8 718,2 635,6
(1) This item includes provisions for tax risks and litigation, industrial, environmental and commercial risks relating to operations (breach of contract), personnel-related costs
and risks relating to investigations carried out by competition authorities.
(2) National competition authorities from several European countries have launched investigations focusing on the cosmetics industry.
Notifications of complaints were sent to the group’s subsidiaries in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. a decision regarding
Italy was handed down by the national competition authority on December 15th, 2010. an appeal against this decision is in progress.
On 31 December 2010, total provisions for competition disputes amounted to 93.1 million Euros.
In 2011, investigations and/or financial sanctions initiated against its subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Switzerland were abandoned.
Spain received notification of a fine, which it has provisioned and challenged on appeal. In Italy, the appeal is still in progress but the fine
was paid to avoid any late-payment interest. The provision was revised accordingly to 35.1 million Euros on 31 December 2011.
Other requests for information have also been sent and investigations have been launched in Europe, although no notifications of
complaints had been received as of 31 December 2011.
In France, on 26 January 2012, the Paris Court of appeals, to which the case was referred back following a decision by the Cour de
Cassation (France’s highest civil court), decided to uphold the 13 March 2006 decision of the French Competition Council resulting from
its investigation of 13 suppliers and 3 distributors in the luxury perfumes and cosmetics industry from 1997 to 1999.
This decision of the Court of appeals may be appealed before the Cour de Cassation. The financial sanctions against L’Oréal have
already been provisioned and paid.
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> For more information, see note 22 of chapter 4 of the 2011 reference Document.
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