In China, luxury brands are finding out that making deals with influencers can earn them dislikes

French cosmetics giant L’Oréal has been going through a massive retail row in China after two leading social media influencers sold large quantities of the company’s beauty face masks to consumers while inaccurately claiming it was the cheapest deal available anywhere.

Influencers Austin Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya regularly reach tens of millions of shoppers on their two e-commerce livestreams, and the November 11 “singles day” festival has become one of their most eagerly anticipated broadcasts. This year, among the many products they were each selling on that evening was the supposedly special offer of batches of 50 L’Oréal masks for ¥429. But it emerged shortly after that the same deal was available direct from L’Oréal for ¥258.

Li, known as China’s “lipstick king” for his ability to sell masses of product online, and Wei, a former pop star who rose to fame as the winner of China’s equivalent of Pop Idol, started receiving large volumes of complaints from furious shoppers.

Both influencers issued apologies. After L’Oréal did not immediately say it would compensate those who had bought the masks, the influencers said they would no longer showcase the company’s products.

Now L’Oréal has apologised and confirmed it will provide compensation. In a statement, the company blamed its “overly...

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