The French parliament has voted in favour of cracking down on disposable fashion.
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Fast fashion advertising could soon be banned in France under new proposals to crack down on the polluting industry.
The French parliament unanimously passed the bill on Thursday, which also aims to impose fines on low-cost clothing brands to compensate them for their environmental impact.
The bill, introduced by Senator Anne-Cécile Violant, is now due for a further vote in the Senate.
“I am pleased with this major breakthrough,” Minister of the Ecological Transition Christophe Bechoux wrote to X on Thursday. “A major step has been taken to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry.”
“Ultra-fast fashion is an environmental disaster”
Becciu has been a vocal supporter of the bill, writing in X magazine on Tuesday that “ultra-fast fashion is an environmental disaster: clothes are poorly made, widely bought, rarely worn and quickly thrown away.”
He supports a proposed ban on advertising fast fashion products, including via social media influencers, and the introduction of environmental fines on clothing.
Becci also voiced support for fast fashion brands to do more to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their clothes and said they should encourage people to reuse products.
SHEIN targeted in France’s anti-fast fashion bill
The proposal specifically targets Chinese-Singaporean fast fashion retailer Shein.
“SHEIN offers 900 times more products than traditional French brands,” the article said, adding that the brand releases more than 7,200 new clothing models per day and sells 470,000 products overall.
This will enable the brand to attract a wider customer base and achieve “significant sales economies”, allowing it to sell at “lower prices than ever before”, the company said.
As a result, European fashion brands are forced to increase production to stay competitive.
Last month, Shein explored a listing on the London Stock Exchange. The ultra-fast fashion brand, which is sold in more than 150 countries around the world, was seeking a valuation of about $90 billion in its filing, according to Bloomberg. It would be the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever on the London Stock Exchange, but its manufacturing methods could come under scrutiny.
The proposal warns that high turnover of cheap fashion items “creates purchasing impulses and a need for constant replacement, which impacts consumer purchasing habits”, with negative impacts on the environment, society and the economy.
Fast fashion manufacturers claim that their business model reduces waste by keeping unsold stock low, while luxury brands are criticized for having high levels of unsold inventory.
How does fast fashion affect the environment?
According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), more than 100 billion items of clothing are sold worldwide each year.
In France, annual clothing sales have increased by 1 billion items over the past decade, reaching 3.3 billion items, or more than 48 items per capita, according to environmental group Refashion.
Globally, the textile and clothing industry is responsible for about 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all aviation and maritime transport combined, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
They also contribute to water pollution, with 20 percent of this coming from microplastics released from synthetic materials during dyeing, finishing and washing.
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Moreover, cheap clothing is associated with well-known labor and human rights violations.
What is being done in Europe to combat fast fashion pollution?
In the EU, various laws are being gradually introduced to curb the impact of polluting industries. For example, the Climate and Resilience Act will require environmental information to be displayed on products such as clothing. It also targets misleading environmental labels, aims to reduce packaging, and promotes the repair and reuse of goods.
The EU Circular Economy Package takes this goal even further by introducing bonuses for:
We repair products, promote the circular and local economy and encourage eco-design.
But these measures are insufficient to address the environmental threats of fast fashion, the French bill argues, adding that there is a need to return to sustainable production.
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What will change with France’s fast fashion bill?
The bill proposes to educate and raise awareness among consumers about the environmental impact of fast fashion and aims to encourage the reuse and repair of clothing to combat throwaway culture.
The ministry is placing more responsibility on producers and proposing fines based on the environmental impact and carbon emissions of their products, similar to those already imposed in the auto industry.
The tax would be phased in and take into account factors such as sustainability and recyclability, and could reach a maximum of 10 euros per item sold, or 50 percent of the purchase price, by 2030, Viollan told Radio France.
The fines will be used to promote fair competition between companies that operate in more sustainable ways, as well as to fund waste management, bonuses for repairs and public awareness campaigns.
Finally, the bill would ban advertising of fast fashion brands and products, similar to the ban on advertising fossil fuels under the Climate and Resilience Act.
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The bill has the backing of industry figures, including Pierre Talamont, a French menswear designer and president of the French National Clothing Federation, who said brands should be penalized for engaging in “commercial marketing and overproduction techniques that force consumers to buy clothes, wear them seven or eight times and then throw them in the bin.”
These companies “destroy jobs, not create jobs,” he added.
It is hoped that the bill will pave the way for future action, such as an EU-wide ban on the export of second-hand clothing.
