The fight against cheap rags: Temu and Shein on the attack

With 337 votes "for" and only one "against", francuski The Senate approved legislation aimed at regulating the ultra industry fast fashion, which specifically targets Chinese e-commerce giants such as Shein i Temu.

This law introduces stricter environmental standards for this sector, as well as a ban on advertising fast fashion.

The Lower House of the French Parliament unanimously adopted this law back in March 2024. To take effect, it still has to pass a joint committee in the fall.

The French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnes Panier-Runache, called the law "a big step in the fight against the economic and environmental impact of fast fashion."

What's new

The law introduces an "eco-rating" system that provides penalties for companies with poor environmental performance. Products with the lowest ratings will be taxed up to five euros per piece in 2025, rising to ten euros by 2030, with a maximum limit of 50 percent of the item's original price.

Also, the law prohibits the advertising of fast fashion and introduces sanctions for influencers who promote such products.

Companies will be required to provide consumers with information on the environmental impact of their purchases, and a special tax will be introduced on packages arriving from outside the European Union. Free returns will be prohibited.

The Senate version of the bill makes a distinction between "ultra" fast fashion and traditional fast fashion, thereby targeting Asian platforms - primarily Shein and Temu. Less rigorous measures are foreseen for European brands such as Zara and H&M.

The first step

France's textile industry union called the law a "first step" toward comprehensive regulation.

Victoire Sato, founder of The Good Goods, which helps the fashion industry become more sustainable, says this is just the beginning, but describes the Senate vote as "a historic and very significant moment."

"Of course we have to remain vigilant and ensure that the letters on the paper are put into practice, and that everything that needs to be controlled is actually controlled. We will also have to pay attention to the semantics - how the term 'fast fashion' will be covered by the law," she told French RFI.

"We know this law won't solve everything. However, it's already opening great doors," explained Sato.

"I've been working on this topic for more than two and a half years and I didn't believe that this kind of momentum would be achieved so quickly. It's typical French that we don't know how to celebrate success. That's why we have to take an optimistic attitude."

Triple threat

The fast fashion market has grown significantly in France – the value of advertised products has increased from €2,3 billion in 2010 to €3,2 billion in 2023. According to data from the French environmental protection agency Adema, about 48 pieces of clothing per person enter the French market annually, while 35 pieces are thrown away every second.

Minister Panje-Runache described fast fashion as a "triple threat" - it encourages excessive consumption, causes environmental damage and threatens the French clothing sector.

Several French brands, including Jennyfer and NafNaf, have faced serious financial problems due to competition from ultra-cheap imports.

Serbia flooded with fast fashion

Can the legislators in Serbia emulate their counterparts in France and somehow limit ultra-fast fashion? Designer and costume designer Lidija Jovanović says - maybe, but warns:

"We don't have high-end brands because we don't have a wide enough market for expensive products. There is only a small niche for local fashion designers. I believe that eighty percent of the market here is fast fashion," she recently told "Međuvreme".

Jovanović believes that, unlike boomers and later generations, today's youth are more aware of the planet and are turning to creative domestic products or second-hand clothes.

However, where does the need to buy a bunch of things come from, which we probably don't need? At one time, Jovanović recalls, the famous grombi coat was worn by two generations. "Now people want to have two or three coats in the same season – and they can afford them, because they're cheap."

It is an artificially implanted need, says our interlocutor, because no one objectively needs four jackets or eight pairs of jeans. "We feel hunger for something we are not fundamentally hungry for."

Julia For from the initiative of brands and manufacturers of the fashion industry En Mode Climat has been fighting for ecological fashion for years. He says that in France, a lot will depend on the application of the law - what is considered fast fashion?

"It's true that cheap clothes increase purchasing power and allow some hard-living French people to buy new clothes. But it's a poisoned gift," Faure told "In between".

Not only have the lower classes lost 300.000 jobs in the French textile industry in 25 years as production moved outside Europe, Faure says, but it is the poorest around the world who are the first to suffer from climate change.

"Clothing prices are so ridiculously low, and the pressure to consume is so powerful—new collections, special offers—that even lower-class people are buying more than they can afford," she concludes.