Macy's, Dillard's and other stores to give away cosmetics

[Disclaimer]

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2009/01/macys_dillards_and_other_depar.html

Class Action lawsuit.

Why wait until Valentine's Day to score your favorite perfume or body lotion?

Starting Tuesday morning, Macy's, Dillard's, Saks Fifth Avenue,

Nordstrom and other department stores nationwide will be giving away

$175 million worth of free mascara, fragrances, lotions and shower gels

as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement.

Retailers will be handing out limited supplies of 20 designer

beauty products, ranging from Vera Wang Princess Body Polish to Lancome

Primordiale Skin Defence to Very Irresistible Givenchy Eau de Toilette.

Freebies are first-come, first-served, and limited to one per customer. There will be no rain checks, returns or exchanges.

The giveaway is part of the Dec. 18 settlement of a 2003

class-action lawsuit that accused certain manufacturers and department

stores of conspiring to fix the retail prices of beauty products.

The settlement involves 14 retailers, also including Bloomingdale's

and Nieman Marcus, and nine manufacturers: Clinique, Estee Lauder,

Lancome, Clarins, Guerlain, Chanel, Boucheron, L'Oreal and Christian

Dior. Retailers and manufacturers are sharing the cost of the giveaway.

"Macy's and Bloomingdale's deny any wrongdoing," Macy's Inc.

spokesman Jim Sluzewski said in an e-mail. "The notion of distributing

free merchandise to settle a class-action lawsuit is not a new idea."

Said Nordstrom Inc. spokeswoman Julee Kraus: "We've done nothing

wrong. We've chosen to settle this to avoid a long and costly trial

process."

The original lawsuit, which 11 women filed in federal court in

northern California, accused manufacturers of giving retailers

financial incentives to agree to sell beauty products at the

manufacturers' suggested retail price.

In addition, the suit alleged that manufacturers guaranteed

retailers a 40 percent profit and agreed to buy back any unsold goods,

"thus guaranteeing that there will never be any mark-downs" of the

products. Manufacturers and retailers also agreedto

promote only one product line at a time and at only one retail chain at

a time, a violation of antitrust laws, the plaintiffs argued.

In settling the suit, neither the retailers nor the manufacturers

admitted wrongdoing. Lawyers for both sides could not be reached for

comment Monday.

Any U.S. resident who bought a department store cosmetic from May

29, 1994, to July 16, 2003, is eligible to receive one free item

.

Shoppers will have to sign papers verifying their eligibility for the

program, but

they won't have to produce a receipt or other proof of

purchase.

The various stores will give away different products.

The products were specifically designed for the event and are not

necessarily the same sizes as those being sold in the stores,

Nordstrom's Kraus said. Each item's retail value is about $25.

The giveaway ends Jan. 26

. Anything left over will be donated to charity. Details about the giveaway are at

cosmeticssettlement.com.

So all you flamers on here, go pick up your cosmetics.

[John]

calling campusracer

[fusion]

I'm curious why you're so interested in the details of this offer? Did you find your receipts?

[natedogg624]

who the heck keeps there receipts from 6+ years ago?!

i shred all mine after two years...