French lawmakers aim to curb the growing fast fashion market | DW News

Fast fashion, a blessing or a curse? Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of clothing is incinerated or sent to landfill. Fast fashion is coming under growing criticism, and not just on the environmental front. Over the last two years, the likes of Chien and Temu have destroyed almost 13,000 jobs in France. We want to see those brands banned here, so that French and other European suppliers can become more creative, more innovative and more sustainable. France is planning to introduce an anti-fast fashion law, which in addition to establishing a legal definition of the business model, will also introduce fines and potentially even an outright ban on advertising for fast fashion. But first, there's that tricky issue, for textile traders here in Germany too, of exactly what qualifies as fast fashion. That's the biggest problem, the lack of a definition. In the fashion sector, at least, we don't even have a definition of sustainable. For me, fast fashion is not synonymous with disposable fashion. With Chien, we're seeing up to 10,000 new products per day, which isn't possible without stealing designs. Second, it means producing with polyester in big factories. And third, exploiting people. That's why we need legislation that intervenes at a certain volume of products and imposes bans. The French trade association, the French Association of Trade Unions, estimates that customers in the country bought 300 million items of clothing via Chinese platforms last year. Products that are currently flooding the whole of Europe with goods. There are no exact figures, but there are indications. The number of parcels below the EU customs duty threshold, for example, has grown several-fold, with 12 million arriving from China alone every day. Nobody knows how many contain clothes, as only the customers get to look inside. Some of the unpacking videos posted by them are then used by Chien, with its 36 million followers. A nice boost for budding influencers and their reach, and for the company, free advertising. But resistance is growing across the EU. We have submitted a complaint together with 25 consumer organizations against fast fashion company Chien for their use of deceptive design techniques, also called dark patterns. So we believe that this type of design, it manipulates consumers, it pushes to overconsumption and impulse buying, meaning that it pushes consumers to buy more than originally intended. And on the environmental front, the EU is definitely buying too much clothing. 19 kilos a year per capita, producing masses of CO2 and consuming too much water. It's hoped the EU's eco-design regulation from 2024 will change things. It requires all products sold in Europe to be durable, repairable and recyclable. And their production should use a minimum of resources and produce as little CO2 as possible. The only problem is that the specific requirements for textiles are only just being drawn up, and that can take time. We're currently facing a massive challenge in the shape of conflicting objectives. And the difficulties posed by these regulations are a big political issue too. One simple example. Some say that sustainable products are those that last the longest. But that would mean all clothing being made of polyester, because it's so durable. As for the initiative shown by France, so far, the draft version of the anti-fast fashion law has enjoyed plenty of support. But it won't be adopted until the fall at the earliest. And it's still not clear whether its various requirements are compatible with EU law. SHEIN has already responded with a counter-campaign. The message? That fashion is a right for everyone, not just a privilege for the rich. SHEIN didn't answer our inquiry, as is typical for the company. Instead, it pays well-known influencers to promote its arguments, a battle over minds on social media, in which both sides are eager to impress. This AI-generated image promptly went viral among fast fashion opponents.