L’Oreal has had a long history of being linked to rumours surrounding the subject of animal testing and it’s ongoing battle with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has created much bad publicity for the company. Many animal activists feel so strongly about this issue that they called for boycotts of not only L’Oreal but also The Body Shop, which was bought by L’Oreal in March 2006.

There have been claims recently that L’Oreal is undergoing a new campaign of reaching an end goal to become “cruelty-free” by 2013. This has resulted in the company donating $1.2 million to the US Environmental Protection Agency in order to help improve the testing of safe chemicals, an act that could be seen as a strategy to improve their brand image. While this move was welcomed by welfare activists, some animal rights groups felt that more could be done by the company to fully terminate all animal testing processes that are occurring in L’Oreal labs currently. To find out more about this case, click here.

It can be seen from this example that business ethics and corporate social responsibility is becoming more and more important for companies to maintain, especially as the current citizens of the world are becoming increasingly aware of these issues. Business ethics can be paramount to the success of a business in the sense that it can help companies increase their consumer base if they have a strongly positive ethical reputation.