# Are Perfume Dupes Legal? What the Courts Have Said

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Are perfume dupes legal? An English appeal court said making a smell-alike is lawful, while the EU's top court barred naming the famous perfume. The rulings.

Published: 2026-11-10

## Key takeaways

- In the main European case, the English Court of Appeal recorded as a finding: "It is lawful to make and sell a smell-alike product."
- The same case shows the limit. The EU's top court ruled in 2009 that lists telling buyers which famous perfume each product smells like were unlawful, because they used the brands' names and presented the products as imitations.
- Whether a smell itself can be owned is unsettled. The Dutch High Court said in 2006 that a perfume's scent may in principle be protected by copyright; France's top court had just said the opposite.
- In 2018 the EU court ruled that the taste of a food cannot be protected by copyright, because it cannot be identified precisely and objectively. That case was about taste, not smell.
- This page reports European rulings. It is not legal advice, and the law differs by country.

Are perfume dupes legal? In the leading European case, the courts treated making and selling a similar-smelling perfume as lawful in itself: the English Court of Appeal recorded the finding that "it is lawful to make and sell a smell-alike product". What the courts stopped was the marketing, in particular lists telling buyers which famous perfume each product smelled like.

This page reports what four court rulings say, from the judgments themselves or, for the Dutch case, from the World Intellectual Property Organization's account. It covers Europe only. It is not legal advice, the law differs between countries, and a ruling on one set of facts does not decide another.

| Year | Court | Case | What it decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Dutch High Court | Kecofa v Lancôme | A perfume's scent may, in principle, be protected by copyright |
| 2006 | French Supreme Court | A case on Dior's Dune | A perfume was not copyrightable |
| 2009 | Court of Justice of the EU | L'Oréal v Bellure (C-487/07) | Comparison lists naming the famous perfumes were unlawful |
| 2010 | English Court of Appeal | L'Oréal v Bellure | Applied the EU ruling: the lists infringed; making a smell-alike remained lawful |
| 2018 | Court of Justice of the EU | Levola Hengelo (C-310/17) | The taste of a food cannot be protected by copyright |

## Is it legal to make a perfume that smells like another?

In the case that tested it most directly, yes. L'Oréal sued Bellure and others in England over ranges of low-priced perfumes, each of which, in the Court of Appeal's words, "smells like a famous, luxury branded perfume known by a well-known registered trade mark". The judgment of 21 May 2010 restates the facts the court had found:

> (i) It is lawful to make and sell a smell-alike product. (ii) The best and only practical way to describe its smell is to inform people that it smells like X. (iii) That is done by the use of the comparison lists.
>
> Lord Justice Jacob, L'Oréal SA v Bellure NV [2010] EWCA Civ 535

L'Oréal did not win on the smell. Its claims were about registered trade marks: the brand names, and the packaging of some of the ranges.

## Why were the comparison lists unlawful?

Because they used the famous names to sell the similar scents. The English court had asked the Court of Justice of the EU how to read the trade mark and advertising directives. The EU court answered on 18 June 2009. Two points decided the case.

First, taking unfair advantage of a famous mark does not require confusing anyone. The court ruled that the advantage is unfair where a seller "seeks by that use to ride on the coat-tails of the mark with a reputation in order to benefit from the power of attraction, the reputation" and prestige of that mark.

Second, the comparative advertising directive does not allow an advertiser to present its goods as an imitation. The directive's own recital, quoted in the judgment, says that "a comparison which presents goods or services as an imitation or a replica of goods or services bearing a protected trade mark or trade name shall not be considered to fulfil the conditions to be met by permitted comparative advertising". The court held it irrelevant whether the advertisement refers to an imitation of the whole product "or merely the imitation of an essential characteristic of that product", such as its smell.

Back in England, the Court of Appeal applied that answer. Its conclusion: "The comparison lists fall within Art. 5(1)(a)", the same mark used for the same goods, and the use "is not protected" by the comparative advertising directive.

## What did the English judge say about the result?

That he was bound by it and did not like it. Lord Justice Jacob framed the question as whether trade mark law prevents sellers "from telling the truth", and answered:

> I have come to the conclusion that the ECJ's ruling is that the defendants are indeed muzzled. My duty as a national judge is to follow EU law as interpreted by the ECJ. I think, with regret, that the answers we have received from the ECJ require us so to hold.
>
> Lord Justice Jacob, L'Oréal SA v Bellure NV [2010] EWCA Civ 535

The judgment is the clearest statement of the tension in this area: the product was lawful, and saying what it smelled like was not.

## Can the smell of a perfume be copyrighted?

Courts have given opposite answers. The best-known ruling in favour is Dutch. Lancôme sued a small Dutch firm, Kecofa, whose perfume Female Treasure was sold, by WIPO Magazine's account, "at a tenth of the price" of Lancôme's Trésor. The trade mark claim failed; the copyright claim succeeded. Professor Kamiel Koelman wrote in the magazine in September 2006:

> In a landmark case in June, the Dutch High Court ruled that the smell of a perfume may, in principle, be copyrightable.
>
> Kamiel Koelman, WIPO Magazine, September 2006

The court, he explains, separated the scent from the liquid and the formula, "comparing the latter to the paper of a book". On that reasoning a perfume with different ingredients that smells the same could infringe. He adds a limit that is often forgotten: the High Court "did not hold that Trésor is copyrightable"; it held that smells could in principle be protected.

The same article records the opposite view from next door: three days earlier, it says, the French Supreme Court had ruled that a perfume, Dior's Dune, was not copyrightable, likening perfumers to craftsmen.

![Lancôme Trésor: a faceted amber glass bottle shaped like an inverted pyramid, with a clear crystal-cut stopper](/assets/perfumes/Lancome_Tresor.webp)

## What did the EU court say about copyright in a taste?

In 2018 it ruled that a taste cannot be a copyright work. The case, Levola Hengelo, concerned a spreadable cheese, not a perfume. The Court of Justice held that EU copyright law precludes "the taste of a food product from being protected by copyright". Its reason was a test:

> [...] the subject matter protected by copyright must be expressed in a manner which makes it identifiable with sufficient precision and objectivity, even though that expression is not necessarily in permanent form.
>
> Court of Justice of the European Union, Levola Hengelo, C-310/17, paragraph 40

The judgment is about taste. It does not mention perfume, and we do not stretch it. What it adds to this subject is the test: protection needs something that can be identified precisely and objectively, with "no element of subjectivity". Whether a smell can meet that test is a question the ruling leaves for another case.

## What is protected, then?

On these rulings, the things around the scent.

| Element | In the cases we read |
|---|---|
| The brand name | Protected as a registered trade mark; using it in comparison lists infringed (EU court, 2009) |
| The bottle and packaging | Part of L'Oréal's trade mark claims; two older packages were treated as infringing |
| Saying "smells like X" | Unlawful comparative advertising in the EU case |
| The scent itself | Protected in principle in the Netherlands in 2006; not in France; not what the EU and English courts protected in L'Oréal v Bellure |

## Is a similar-smelling perfume the same as a fake?

No, and the cases show the difference. The perfumes in L'Oréal v Bellure were sold under their own names. A counterfeit is a different thing: a product that carries the original brand's name and packaging and is passed off as the real one. This page is about the first kind.

## What this means if you are buying

We give no legal advice, to buyers or sellers. Two plain observations from the rulings:

- A perfume sold under its own name that smells similar to a famous one was, in the leading European case, a lawful product.
- Comparisons between such perfumes and famous ones are usually made by reviewers and shoppers, not by the sellers, and the EU ruling explains why.

That is the background to pages such as [Zara perfumes that smell like designer scents](/blog/zara-perfumes-that-smell-like-designer-scents) and [our guide to Arabian perfumes and the designer scents they are compared with](/blog/arabian-perfume-dupes): the comparisons there are reviewers' opinions, reported as such.

## Find Similar Scents by Their Notes

If what you want is a perfume in the same style as one you love, the notes are the honest route. In the Fragnatique app you can open any perfume, see its notes, and find others in the catalogue that share them, whatever the brand or the price. Start with the [perfume finder](/perfume-finder) or scan a bottle with the [perfume scanner](/perfume-scanner). [The fragrance notes pyramid](/blog/fragrance-notes-pyramid) explains how to read what you find.

## Frequently asked

**Are perfume dupes legal?**

In the leading European case, the courts treated making and selling a similar-smelling perfume as lawful in itself. The English Court of Appeal's 2010 judgment in L'Oréal v Bellure records the finding that it is lawful to make and sell a smell-alike product. What was held unlawful was the way the products were marketed, with lists naming the famous perfumes.

**Is it illegal to sell perfume that smells like a designer scent?**

The rulings we read drew the line at marketing, not at the smell. In 2009 the EU's Court of Justice held that comparison lists naming the famous perfumes infringed the brands' trade marks and breached the rule against advertising a product as an imitation or replica. Laws differ by country, and this is not legal advice.

**Can a perfume's smell be copyrighted?**

Courts have disagreed. The Dutch High Court ruled in June 2006 that a perfume's scent may in principle be protected by copyright, in a case about Lancôme's Trésor. Three days earlier, France's top court had ruled that a perfume was not copyrightable. In 2018 the EU court set a test, for a taste, that a protected work must be identifiable with sufficient precision and objectivity.

**What part of a perfume is legally protected?**

In the cases we read, the name and the packaging. L'Oréal v Bellure was fought on registered trade marks: the brand names in the comparison lists and the look of some bottles and boxes. The scent itself was not what the English and EU courts protected in that case.

**Can a seller say its perfume smells like a famous one?**

In the EU case, no. The Court of Justice held that advertising which presents a product as an imitation of one bearing a trade mark is unlawful comparative advertising. The English judge who applied the ruling wrote that the sellers were muzzled, and said he reached that result with regret.

**Is a dupe the same as a fake perfume?**

No. The cases concerned products sold under their own names that smelled similar to famous perfumes. A fake, or counterfeit, carries the original brand's name and packaging and passes itself off as the real product, which is a different matter from a similar-smelling scent sold as itself.


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