An Estée Lauder pop-up store is seen inside a Daimaru store on Nanjing Road in Shanghai, China, Aug. 6, 2021.

Costfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Estée Lauder Companies said Monday that it is in talks with Spanish beauty group Puig to potentially merge the two companies.

“No final decision has been made, and no agreement has been reached,” Estée Lauder said in a statement.

Shares of the U.S. beauty company were down nearly 8% following the news, which was first reported by the Financial Times. Puig’s stock rose roughly 3%.

Puig owns major beauty brands including Charlotte Tilbury, Jean Paul Gaultier and Rabanne. The companies did not disclose any financial details of the potential deal.

Estée Lauder has been struggling amid ongoing headwinds from tariffs and its restructuring as it enacts its “Beauty Reimagined” turnaround plan to revitalize the business. In its second-quarter earnings report last month, the beauty retailer said it’s expecting a $100 million hit to its full-year profitability due to tariff impacts.

Estée Lauder’s stock has dropped roughly 25% this year.

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Walmart Inc. signage during the company’s listing at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Estée Lauder sued Walmart in California federal court over allegations the big-box retailer sold counterfeit beauty products on its website and didn’t do enough to ensure only authorized and authentic merchandise was offered to consumers. 

Estée Lauder said it purchased, inspected or tested a number of products sold on Walmart.com that used the Le Labo, La Mer, Clinique, Aveda, Tom Ford and Estée Lauder trademarks but were determined to be fakes, according to the suit, filed Monday.

The products include counterfeit versions of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair serum, a Le Labo fragrance, a Clinique eye cream, a La Mer lotion, an Aveda hair brush and a Tom Ford fragrance. 

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xemplars of the Estée Lauder Accused Products

U.S. District Court Complaint

It’s unclear when Estée Lauder bought and tested the products but the suit comes several months after CNBC published an investigation into counterfeit beauty products and fraud on Walmart.com.

Two of the counterfeit products cited in CNBC’s investigation — Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum and Clinique Smart Clinical Repair Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream — were also mentioned in Estée Lauder’s lawsuit. It’s unclear if the products cited in the suit are the same counterfeits CNBC provided to Estée Lauder. 

In response, Walmart initially told CNBC in a statement it requires “all sellers to offer only authentic, lawful merchandise” and it doesn’t tolerate “bad actors” on its platform. It then recalled the message and sent an abbreviated statement to CNBC two hours later that removed that language.

“We are aware of the complaint and have zero tolerance for counterfeit products,” the revised statement read. “We will respond appropriately with the court when we are served.” 

Estée Lauder didn’t return a request for comment. 

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Exemplars of the Clinique Accused Products

U.S. District Court Complaint

While the products were sold by third-party sellers on Walmart’s online marketplace, Estée Lauder said the company played an active role in facilitating those sales to shoppers in its suit. The legacy beauty company called Walmart’s conduct “extreme, outrageous, fraudulent … despicable and harmful.” 

The counterfeit products were promoted and advertised to shoppers on the platform, Estee Lauder’s trademarks were used in search engine optimization tools to drive traffic to the listings and Walmart profited from the sales, the complaint stated. 

Further, “a person shopping on Walmart.com would have reasonably believed that Walmart, and not third-party sellers, was the seller” of the item, which could have caused confusion among shoppers, the complaint states. 

At the heart of CNBC’s investigation into Walmart’s online marketplace was the steps the company took, or didn’t take, to vet its third-party sellers and the products they were offering to prevent fraud and the sale of fakes on the platform. 

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Exemplars of the La Mer Accused Products.

U.S. District Court Complaint

In its complaint, Estée Lauder said Walmart promoted the “reputation and professionalism” of the sellers permitted to operate on the platform but said the retailer actually does “very little to ensure that only authorized and authentic products are available” for sale. 

“This is readily apparent given the [counterfeits] were permitted to be sold on Defendants’ website despite their stated careful selection process in who they choose as a Marketplace seller/partner,” the complaint states. “Accordingly, Defendants know or had reason to know that the sellers they partnered with and ‘regularly review[ed]’ were selling products which infringe upon the Estée Lauder Marks.” 

Walmart’s online marketplace has become a key part of its strategy to grow profit faster than sales and better compete against its longtime rival, Amazon. The rapid growth of the online platform helped fuel Walmart’s ascent to a $1 trillion market cap last week, putting it in an exclusive club made up almost entirely of technology companies. 

However, the strategy has come with risks, CNBC’s investigation revealed. Offering counterfeit, potentially dangerous, products to shoppers through third-party sellers on the marketplace opens Walmart up to liability and could erode the customer trust at the core of its brand.

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Exemplars of the Le Labo Accused Products

U.S. District Court Complaint

Ever since a 2010 court ruling that arose after Tiffany sued eBay over counterfeit products on the platform, it can be tough for brands to hold platforms accountable for their role in selling counterfeit goods. Sometimes, they avoid lawsuits unless the conduct is extreme or particularly flagrant, experts previously told CNBC.

The Shop Safe Act, a bipartisan federal bill that aims to curb the sale of fakes on online marketplaces, is designed to address some of the issues posed by the Tiffany v. eBay ruling by incentivizing platforms to better vet sellers and the products they’re offering. When platforms comply with certain anti-counterfeiting measures, they could be shielded from liability if a seller offers a fake product. 

Brands widely supported the legislation, but it has so far failed to pass at least three times. That’s partially because Walmart and other online marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy and eBay have lobbied against aspects of it, two U.S. Senate aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private, previously told CNBC. 

The post Estée Lauder sues Walmart, alleging sale of counterfeits appeared first on Our Story Insight.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer said on Thursday he viewed the fall in Estee Lauder shares after the earnings as a buying opportunity and downplayed concerns about the company’s sales in the Asia Pacific region.

“When China ends its lockdowns, I think the demand for these products will increase,” said the Mad Money host. “That’s why the stock is on [Estee Lauder] is a purchase, not a sale.”

The cosmetics giant beat Wall Street expectations on both revenue and earnings, posting 11% organic sales growth and 14% overall sales growth in the fiscal second quarter. While Cramer said he was impressed with the results, shares of Estée Lauder fell 5% in Thursday’s session.

“A lot is because analysts are now concerned that China is slowing down,” Cramer said, calling the concern “absurd.”

Estee Lauder reported 5% organic net sales growth in its Asia Pacific region, but Cramer said it was necessary to interpret those results in the context of the strict restrictions imposed by the Covid pandemic in China.

“What matters is Chinese demand. … The supply is not the problem here,” said Cramer. “What we do know is that Chinese consumers did just that when they could buy Estee Lauder when stores were open.”

Cramer’s Charitable Foundation does not currently own Estee Lauder. On December 16, the trust exited its 100-share position, selling them for approximately $365.67 a share. It had bought shares earlier in the summer, believing Estee Lauder was a solid way to play the pandemic reopening.

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