Hong Kong-based beauty retailer Colourmix has been fined HK$160,000 for selling counterfeit Bioderma make-up remover across eight of its stores. 

There were a total of 481 counterfeit bottles from the French cosmetics company in the batch with Magistrate Amy Chan Wai-mun stating, “Colourmix’s quality assurance system is seriously lacking, failing to achieve even the basic gate-keeping [responsibility].”

Colourmix Cosmetics Company, which has 96 stores across China, was found guilty of seven charges of possessing goods for sale with forged trademarks, while the Products Purchase Supervisor Lam Yuk-Fong was cleared of any wrongdoing due to the judge ruling she had no direct control over the illegal products. 

Discovered during a customs operation in July 2015, there was one genuine bottle found amongst the 482 bottles of Bioderma make-up removing water, with the counterfeits having spelling mistakes, misprints and incorrect expiry dates from bottles of the same batch number.

Defence council Lawrence Lok Ying-kam SC said, “I am sure Colourmix will adopt a stricter attitude in product checks after this case.”