The mail order firm behind the Vital Beauty brand is facing a new probe despite cast-iron assurances to the Office of Fair Trading two years ago that it would change its marketing practices.
Agence de Marketing Applique, based in Mouscron, Belgium was hauled over the coals in both 2006 and 2008, after flooding the UK with hundreds of thousands of prize draw mailings which misled people into thinking they had won up £14,500.
Recipients were asked to place orders for beauty products and told they would receive their ‘winning’ cheques within two weeks. However, no cheques ever arrived; only demands for more orders. In fact they were only entitled to entry into a prize draw with a small chance of winning the cash prize
Trading Standards secured a court order against the company but according to BBC One’s Inside Out programme the company is continuing is sharp practice. It highlighted the plight of Berkshire woman Alison Rogers, whose father has spent thousands of pounds of beauty products in a quest to win the prize draw. She demanded legal action to prevent further mailings being sent.
