The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
France’s lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill seeking penalties on ultra-fast fashion products, sold by companies like China’s Shein, aimed at helping to offset their environmental impact.
The bill calls for gradually increasing penalties of up to €10 per individual item of clothing by 2030, as well for a ban on advertising for such products.
All voting lawmakers unanimously approved the bill, which will head to the senate before it can become law.
The popularity of fashion retailers Shein and Temu - which scale up orders based on demand thanks to ultra-flexible supply chains - have disrupted the retail sector while established players like Zara and H&M continue to largely rely on predicting shoppers’ preferences.
ADVERTISEMENT
Shein said in a statement to Reuters that the clothes it produces meet an existing demand, which allows its rate of unsold garments to remain consistently in low single digits, whereas traditional players can have up to 40 percent waste.
It added that the only impact of the bill would be to “worsen the purchasing power of French consumers, at a time when they are already feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.”
The bill comes as the French environmental ministry said it would propose a European Union ban on exports of used clothes, in a bid to tackle the worsening problem of textile waste.
By Mimosa Spencer and Corentin Chappron; Editing by GV De Clercq
Learn more:
Fast Fashion Firms Prepare for EU Crackdown on Waste Mountain
Within a year, the sorting centre run by garment re-use and recycling charity Moda Re plans to double the volume it handles to 40,000 metric tonnes annually.
More than a year after the ultra-fast-fashion company said it would tackle issues of unlawful overtime, 75-hour weeks remain common in its supply chain, Swiss watchdog Public Eye found.
A study published this week found traces of cotton from Xinjiang in nearly a fifth of the products it examined, highlighting the challenges brands face in policing their supply chains even as requirements to do so spread to raw materials from diamonds to leather and palm oil.
Overconsumption and fast fashion have become easy targets for brands flexing their climate-friendly attributes. Consumers may agree with the message — but take issue with a self-righteous tone.
Traces of cotton from Xinjiang were found in nearly a fifth of samples from American and global retailers, highlighting the challenges of complying with a US law aimed at blocking imports that could be linked to forced labour in China.