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The U.S. subsidiaries of French cosmetics giant L'Oreal SA were fined $1.44 million by the U.S. Commerce Department on August 29, an action that settles charges that the company participated in the Arab League boycott of Israel. Those charges had been made against L'Oreal subsidiaries Parbel of Florida and New York-based Cosmair Inc., and Bruce L. Mishkin, associate corporate counsel for Cosmair. The Commerce Department alleged that the subsidiaries had provided its parent company with information about L'Oreal's Israeli business in order to help the company get off the ArabLeague blacklist. A statement from L'Oreal reads, in part: "At issue were three documents sent to the company's Paris headquarters by a U.S. affiliate of L'Oreal, now known as Parbel of Florida, in 1989. These documents contained information about the affiliate's business relationships with Israel. The Commerce Department contended that transmitting the documents violated U.S. anti-boycott law, which bars companies from 'furnishing information' about their business dealings with Israel. The Commerce Department does not allege that L'OrEal ever refused to do business in Israel or ever engaged in any discriminatory business practices relating to Israel. Commerce specifically said the settlement 'does not constitute a finding or determination' that Parbel violated the law 'or that Parbel engaged in discriminatory business practices in furtherance of or in compliance with the Arab League's economic boycott of Israel.' Nor were any other individuals or entities associated with L'Oreal found to have violated U.S. law." L'OrEal chairman Lindsay Owen-Jones, in a letter to the to the Anti-Defamation League, said "I believe an international company like L'Oreal should have refused to place itself in such an unacceptable position and should not have replied to boycott inquiries." He also stated that "L'OrEal has done business in Israel for 15 years without interruption and is today the industry's largest foreign investor and manufacturer in Israel," and that the company decided to settle the matter in order to avoid costly, time-consuming litigation.