L'Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, was found guilty today of racial discrimination after the highest court in France heard that executives had sought an all-white team of sales staff to promote its shampoos.

La Cour de Cassation was told that Garnier, L'Oréal's beauty products division, tried to keep black, Asian and Arab women from selling its Fructis shampoo in French supermarkets.

Adecco, the temporary recruitment agency whose Districom division hired the hostesses, was also found guilty of racial discrimination.

L'Oréal expressed "disappointment" over the judgment, which ends three years of legal wrangling over the discrimination claims.

Adecco declined to comment.

Samuel Thomas, the vice-chairman of SOS Racisme, the anti-racist campaign group, described the ruling as a "very great victory".

The court was told that a Disticom executive had sent a fax in 2000 saying that Garnier's hostesses should be aged 18 to 22, wear size 38 to 42 clothes and be "BBR".

This stands for "bleu, blanc, rouge" (blue, white, red) — the colours of the French flag — and is a well-known code for white people, La Cour de Cassation was told.

Prosecutors said that Garnier wanted to exclude members of the ethnic minorities on the grounds that they would be less likely to win custom for its shampoo in French stores.

The court was told that only 4.65 per cent of the hostesses hired for Garnier's campaign were black, Asian or Arab.

Thérèse Coulange, the deputy managing director of Districom, who sent the fax, said that she had merely wanted hostesses able to "express themselves correctly in French".

The Paris Appeal Court had fined L'Oréal and Adecco €30,000 each and ordered them to pay a further €30,000 each in damages to SOS Racisme.

La Cour de Cassation upheld the fines but told the appeal court judges to reconsider the damages.

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