France’s House of Commons has backed a series of measures that will make low-cost fast fashion, especially Chinese mass-produced products, less attractive to buyers.
Thursday’s vote will make France the first country in the world to “enact a law to limit the excesses of ultra-fast fashion,” Christophe Besh, the minister responsible for environmental transition, said. The measure still requires a vote in the Senate.
Key measures include a ban on advertising the cheapest textile products and an environmental tax on low-cost goods.
The French clothing market has been flooded with cheap imported clothing, and several domestic brands have declared bankruptcy.
But the main argument raised by President Emmanuel Macron’s allied party Horizons, which introduced the bill, was environmental.
“The textile industry is the most polluting industry,” said Horizons vice president Anne-Cécile Violand, adding that the industry accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and is a major source of water pollution. Ta.
According to the law, France applies criteria such as the amount of clothing produced and the rate of rotation of new collections when determining fast fashion.
Violand pointed to the Chinese company Shein and its “7,200 new garments per day” as a prime example of intensive fashion production.
Once the law comes into force, the exact criteria will be published in a government decree.
Fast fashion producers will be forced to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their products.
A surcharge related to fast fashion’s ecological footprint will be set at €5 (£4.20) per item from next year, rising to €10 by 2030. However, this charge cannot exceed 50% of the item’s price tag.
Violand said the revenue from the levy would be used to subsidize producers of sustainable clothing, making it easier for producers to compete.
A bill to restrict fast fashion advertising was also approved, but conservative lawmaker Antoine Belmorel-Marquez said: “A ban on advertising in textiles, especially fashion, would mean the end of fashion.”
An initiative brought by left-wing and Green Party MPs to include minimum penalties for producers who break the rules, as well as import quotas and stricter workplace standards in the industry, was rejected.
Thanks to global luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, Dior, and Cartier, luxury fashion is a cornerstone of the French economy.
But France’s lower-end fashion sector has been eclipsed by European rivals Zara and H&M, and more recently by Chinese giants Shein and Tem.
