Source: AFP
France’s parliament on Thursday backed a series of measures that make low-cost fast fashion, especially from Chinese mass producers, less attractive to shoppers.
The vote makes France the first country in the world to “legislate to curb the excesses of ultra-fast fashion,” said Christophe Bechu, minister for the ecological transition.
Key measures include a ban on advertising for the cheapest textiles and an environmental charge on low-cost items.
The French clothing market has been flooded with cheap imported clothes, while several domestic brands have declared bankruptcy.
But the main arguments put forward by Horizons — President Emmanuel Macron’s allied party that submitted the draft law — were environmental.
“Textiles are the most polluting industry,” Horizons deputy Anne-Cecile Violland said, saying the sector accounted for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and was a major water polluter.
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He singled out the Chinese company Shein and its “7,200 new garments per day” as a prime example of intensive fashion production.
France will apply criteria such as the volume of clothes produced and the speed of turnover of new collections to determine what constitutes fast fashion, according to the law.
Once the law — which still requires a Senate vote — goes into effect, precise criteria will be published in an executive order.
Fast fashion producers will be forced to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their production.
A surcharge linked to fast fashion’s ecological footprint of five euros ($5.45) per item is planned from next year, rising to €10 by 2030. However, the fee cannot exceed 50 percent of an item’s price.
Violland said revenue from the fee would be used to subsidize producers of sustainable clothing, allowing them to compete more easily.
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A measure to limit fast fashion advertising was also passed, although conservative lawmaker Antoine Vermorel-Marquez remarked that “a ban on textile advertising, especially fashion, means the end of fashion”.
An initiative by left-wing and Greens MPs to include in the new law minimum penalties for producers who break the rules, as well as import quotas and stricter workplace criteria in the industry, was scrapped.
High-end fashion is a cornerstone of the French economy thanks to top global luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, Dior and Cartier.
However, the French low-end fashion category has lost ground to European rivals Zara, H&M and, more recently, Chinese behemoths Shein and Temu.
Source: AFP