The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2026
Melplexion's 'honey and turmeric reduce dark spots' scrub claim upheld by the Dutch RCC
An Instagram ad said honey and turmeric reduce dark spots and hyperpigmentation. Melplexion never supplied evidence — and lost the 'natural' claim too.
Melplexion · 2026-07-13
What happened
In a 20 February 2025 Instagram post, Melplexion advertised its Natural Face Scrub Honey & Turmeric: "Give your face the glow it deserves with our Natural Face Scrub! With honey and turmeric, this scrub helps reduce dark spots and hyperpigmentation."
The Dutch RCC found the claim attributed dark-spot and hyperpigmentation benefits to honey and turmeric without sufficient, verifiable evidence. The advertiser was repeatedly invited to submit substantiating documentation but did not use the opportunity, even after an interim decision granted it more time.
The Commission upheld the claim as a breach of Article 3(6) of the Code for Cosmetic Products, and separately found the 'Natural Face Scrub' name misleading because the advertiser could not show which ingredients were natural and in what percentages, breaching Article 8.2(b) and thus Article 7 of the Dutch Advertising Code.
The RCC recommended the advertiser no longer advertise in that manner. The consumer's other objections — the missing online INCI list and a mildness suggestion — were subsided by or outside the scope of the finding.
Why it happened
- Honey and turmeric are ingredients, not a licence to promise a result — the claim needed studies, and Melplexion never produced any despite repeated invitations
- Calling a scrub 'Natural' while refusing to say what was natural and in what share gave the regulator a second, separate breach
- It treated test results as confidential instead of showing them, and the RCC takes silence as an admission
The lesson
Ingredient claims need evidence an advertiser can show. If the studies are 'confidential' and the 'natural' label has no breakdown behind it, a cosmetic claim collapses into two upheld breaches.
Aftermath
The RCC ruled the dark-spot claim breached Article 3(6) of the Code for Cosmetic Products and the 'Natural Face Scrub' label breached Article 7 of the Dutch Advertising Code, recommending the advertiser no longer advertise in that manner. Melplexion had been invited to substantiate its claims but supplied nothing, and the Commission did not assess the remaining objections because the core claim had already failed.
Sources
spotted an error? The club wants to know.
More like this
Ireland's Toothfairy's 'Bro-tox' homepage read by ASAI as advertising Botox to the public
Beauty Pie's LED mask poster said 'clinically proven' — the study didn't prove it
L'Oréal's airbrushed Julia Roberts ad was banned — the retouching had gone too far
Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →
Comments · 0
Sign in to join the comments.