Fragrance Influencers Face TikTok & Instagram Bans Tied to Nobilis

The most prominent creator affected is Noel Deyzel, the South African bodybuilder who built a second career as a fragrance reviewer. His Instagram and TikTok accounts, which had 1.2 million and 1.8 million followers respectively, were suspended following actions he attributed to Nobilis Group.

The dispute reportedly centered on videos comparing scents from luxury houses such as Creed and Amouage with less expensive alternatives. TikTok cited multiple violations of its intellectual property policy and removed hundreds of his videos, while Deyzel maintained that he had never posted anything that infringed on intellectual property.

Deyzel responded by opening a backup account, @noeldeyzelfragrance2.0, where a video accusing Nobilis of hypocrisy drew more than 439,000 likes. He also removed all company-distributed fragrances from his personal collection. After he appealed the suspension, his original accounts were restored, though he told followers in a subsequent post that the fight was not over.

The suspensions have extended well beyond Deyzel, alarming a community that depends heavily on short-form video for its livelihood. Patrón Profumo, a German fragrance reviewer, said in an October 24 video that he and many other creators had received strikes from Nobilis. He has since recovered his TikTok account and announced a boycott of every fragrance the company distributes.

Reports have also circulated of account removals involving Elijah Yeroushalmi, known to followers as Elijah Yero, who posted that he understood firsthand what it meant to lose an account. Nobilis’s chief executive has singled out creators by name, including Kai Porten, whom he accused in videos of recommending dupes to his audience.

Nobilis Group is largely unknown to American consumers, but the company holds considerable influence in the European fragrance market. It was founded in 1993 and is based in Wiesbaden, Germany, and is the travel retailer Gebr. Heinemann acquired a 50% stake in the company in 2023. Nobilis holds exclusive distribution rights in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland for brands including Xerjoff and Casamorati, as well as Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, Roberto Cavalli, and Chopard. This month, the company announced it would add fragrances from Shakira, Benetton, and Antonio Banderas to that portfolio.

Udo Heuser, the company’s co-owner and chief executive, has defended the complaints as a matter of accountability. He said he reported the videos to hold influencers responsible, characterizing the alternatives being promoted as “Arabic copies.” In a LinkedIn post, Heuser denied that Nobilis was deliberately targeting creators and said the company acts only against what German and European Union law considers unlawful comparative advertising.

The legal foundation for targeting individual reviewers, however, appears considerably weaker than Nobilis suggests. Selling, buying, or reviewing a fragrance that does not copy another brand’s name, logo, or bottle design is not illegal because a scent itself generally cannot be protected as a trademark. Counterfeits, which impersonate the original brand, are a separate matter, but a bottle from a brand like Lattafa or Armaf carries its own name and makes no claim to be anything else.

Nobilis’s most significant courtroom victories have targeted dupe manufacturers and the way they market their products. In May 2025, the company prevailed against the dupe brand ÉCLAT when Germany’s Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal and held that sellers can be liable for customer reviews used in their own marketing. That ruling concerned a company advertising its own products, and applying the same reasoning to independent creators offering their opinions to followers represents a substantial extension.

Nobilis does raise a legitimate concern about paid promotion, since many dupe fragrance houses sponsor influencers to claim that a $30 alternative smells identical to, or better than, a $400 niche perfume. Undisclosed sponsorships of that kind warrant scrutiny, but clear advertising disclosures address that problem more precisely than the removal of entire accounts built on years of independent reviews. The company has a history of aggressive enforcement, having sent cease-and-desist letters in 2024 to sellers of fragrance samples and decants over labeling deficiencies and the unauthorized use of product images.

The commercial stakes help explain why both sides have dug in. A March 2026 report from the fragrance company OnScent projected that fragrance sales through TikTok Shop are on pace to exceed $500 million annually, driven largely by creators who explain scent profiles, longevity and layering to their audiences. When a single distributor can take those voices offline, consumers lose access to the independent comparisons that help them avoid costly purchases made without ever smelling a fragrance.

Shoppers who rely on TikTok and Instagram for fragrance recommendations should expect some creators, particularly those with large European audiences, to frame comparisons more cautiously in the coming weeks. Dupes remain legal to purchase, but what is best for consumers is to confirm whether a review is sponsored, sample both the original and the alternative, and decide based on personal experience before buying a full bottle. Premium Beauty News has published an analysis of the legal questions involved, and the issue is scheduled for discussion at the Fragrance Innovation Summit in Paris on November 25.

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