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The Publicis-owned agency already holds the £11.5m L'Oréal Luxury Brands account – including Lancôme, Ralph Lauren, Cacharel, Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani – and has now scooped the entire account for L'Oréal in the UK.

However, L'Oréal has told agencies the account will be reviewed again in March 2007 and WPP-owned MindShare would be invited to pitch, as well as ZenithOptimedia and Interpublic's Universal McCann.

The L'Oréal Golden account, which includes L'Oréal, Maybelline and Garnier among its high-profile brands, is worth £101.4m in billings in the UK, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The brief covers both planning and buying throughout Western and Eastern Europe, except in France and Italy where L'Oréal buys its media directly.

The loss comes as a blow to Universal McCann, which has held the account for more than 15 years, and is the latest in a series of knock backs for parent company Interpublic.

Universal McCann yesterday confirmed it had lost the pitch, but declined to comment further.

The agency retains parts of the L'Oréal business in North America, Asia and Australia and sister agency McCann Erickson continues to handle the creative brief.

The decision by the cosmetics giant ends a prolonged period of uncertainty for the agencies, which have been waiting for a decision since early May.

Globally, Universal McCann's Interpublic owner has been facing a series of troubles, including a delay in filing its annual accounts and the loss of its chief financial officer.

In the past year, the network has lost the £1.5bn General Motors account in the US to Publicis-owned Starcom MediaVest, as well as the European Unilever business and parts of the Nestlé brief at the end of last year.

It is understood that the business is expected to move over to ZenithOptimedia by October this year.

ZenithOptimedia holds the planning account for L'Oréal's arch-rival Procter & Gamble, but P&G media director Bernard Balderston declined to comment on the matter.

ZenithOptimedia and L'Oréal were unavailable for comment.