French senators begin debating landmark fast fashion legislation Monday that could reshape how ultra-cheap clothing is sold and marketed, but ecologists fear the proposed law has been significantly diluted from its original form.
The French buy an average of 48 items of new clothing per year per person, but two thirds of those garments remain in the wardrobe, while others are thrown away and pollute the environment. Thirty-five garments are thrown away every second, according to Ademe – France's environmental agency.
On Monday, lawmakers in the upper house begin debating a proposed law to "reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry" – estimated to be responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide
In March 2024, MPs voted unanimously to define and regulate imports of low-cost, high-turnover clothing – known as ultra-fast fashion – embodied by Chinese online retailers like Shein and Temu.
"Today, these giants of ultra-disposable fashion are invading the market without any oversight. We need to set rules and hit them as effectively and as hard as possible," said Sylvie Valente Le Hir, a senator with the conservative Republicans and rapporteur of the bill.
Under the legislation, the legal definition of "fast fashion" would be based on factors such as production volume, product lifespan and repairability.
Companies falling under this definition would face new obligations, including environmental transparency and potential penalties through a bonus-malus system indexed to environmental labelling. It would reward virtuous production methods and penalise companies that adopt wasteful, fast-fashion practices.
Advertising for fast fashion would also be limited.
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Weakened proposals
However, following amendments by a Senate commission in February, the text put before senators is weaker than the original.
The proposed ban on advertising will now apply only to influencers, after senators argued it could infringe on economic freedom.
Environmental labelling as the basis for the bonus-malus system has also been dropped.
For Impact France, an NGO that spearheaded advocacy efforts for the law, the latest version is no longer aligned with France’s ecological transition goals.
"What made the first version of the text so strong was that it contained two measures that worked well. The first was a ban on advertising, and the second was a bonus-malus system based on the environmental impact of clothing," said Impact's co-president Julia Faure.
"The combination of these two measures made it possible to change the paradigm of the textile industry. If you take away half of the measures, you halve the effectiveness of such a text," she told RFI.
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Protecting France-based business
The amendments follow Shein's intense lobbying of the French parliament. The Chinese giant hired former minister Christophe Castaner as a consultant. French media reported that Castaner had presented himself to MPs as a defender of low-income consumers.
The bill now targets mainly Asian ultra fast-fashion giants such as Shein and Temu. Critics such as the Stop Fast Fashion coalition fear this could turn the legislation into "an empty shell with no deterrent effect" by letting large European and French fast fashion platforms off the hook.
However, senator Sylvie Vallin, of the conservative Republicans party, defends the idea of excluding European fast fashion chains.
"Ephemeral fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Kiabi are found in our shopping centres and city centres. And these brands and shops pay their taxes and employ people," she told RFI. "I'm not going to green the entire textile industry with a bill like this one. However, we are seizing this opportunity to have an impact on the biggest Chinese giants, and then we are working at European level."
The European Commission is considering introducing a tax on small parcels entering the EU – most of which come from China. In late May it urged Shein to respect EU consumer protection laws and warned it could face fines if it failed to address the EU's concerns over the sale of unsafe and dangerous products sold on the sites of both Shein and Temu.
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Impact France is calling for four key provisions to be reinstated in the fast fashion legislation – environmental labelling, inclusion of multi-brand platforms, a comprehensive ad ban, and extending producer responsibility on an international level.
"The fashion industry needs rules that reflect the scale of its impact," Faure said. "We have an opportunity to set a global standard, France shouldn’t miss it."
While the Senate opposes a blanket ban on fast fashion advertising, the government has said it will try and reintroduce it into the bill, with backing from the left.
