Genuine or grey market? How to check the fragrance you're buying

Three things that get called "grey market"

The phrase gets used for very different things, and only one of them is a problem for you.

• Parallel stock. Genuine product, bought from a distributor and sold on outside the brand's own selective network. This is what most discount perfumeries, pharmacies and online retailers sell, and it's what we sell. The bottle is the same bottle.
• Diverted or damaged stock. Genuine, but with something done to it: the batch code scratched or cut off the box ("decoded"), testers marked "not for sale" repackaged for sale, or stock that has sat in a hot warehouse for years. Legal grey areas, and a poor product for your customer either way.
• Counterfeit. Not the product at all. Fakes of the big designer names are common, they're getting better, and they arrive with perfect-looking boxes.

How to check what you're being offered

1. The batch code

Every genuine fragrance carries a batch (lot) code — a short string of letters and numbers printed or stamped on the bottom of the box and again on the bottle. It tells the brand when and where the product was made. If a supplier's stock has the code removed, cut out or covered, walk away: it has been decoded to hide where it leaked from, it can't be traced in a recall, and it's the single clearest sign of diverted goods. Several free websites will read a batch code and give you the production date; we're happy to give you the code from any line before you order.

2. The price

Genuine stock has a floor: the distributor's price. A quote far below what every other wholesaler is asking is not a bargain, it's a question. Fakes and testers are cheap because they cost almost nothing to produce or acquire.

3. The seller

Buy from a business you can look up. A UK limited company with a Companies House number, a VAT number on the invoice, a real address you could visit, and a phone or email that a person answers. A seller who only exists as a marketplace username, or who can't invoice with VAT, can't stand behind the stock if something is wrong.

4. The packaging

Cellophane wrap that's crisp and tight, print that's sharp, a box that matches the current design for that line. Fakes often get the box nearly right and the cellophane wrong. If you have a bottle you know is genuine, compare the two side by side — the spray mechanism, the weight, the cap.

What we do about it

• We buy from established UK distributors and can say where each line came from.
• Every bottle we sell has its batch code intact, on the box and the bottle.
• We don't sell testers, decoded stock, or anything we can't trace.
• You get a VAT invoice from Sterling Trading Group Ltd, company no. 15760787, registered at Unit 18 Brook Industrial Estate, Bullsbrook Road, Hayes UB4 0JZ.
• Anything that arrives damaged or wrong is replaced or credited within 14 days.

The honest limits

We are an independent wholesaler and not an authorised distributor of any brand. That means we can't offer brand marketing support, and if you sell on certain marketplaces you should check their rules for the brand in question — some brands ask platforms to restrict who lists them. What we can offer is the genuine product at a trade price, from a company you can check, with the paperwork to prove it. For most independents, that's the whole point.