The laws regulating fashion result from the delicate balancing act of many moving parts.
With the profit-focused goals of fashion companies, political agendas, sustainability causes and consumer rights, introducing any new legislation into the fashion industry is a lengthy process.
Here’s a breakdown of the latest status of the laws being proposed and initiated across the globe, that every brand needs to know about.
France’s fast fashion ban
LVMH, Hermès and Chanel are just some of the fashion houses that fuel the French economy.
However, with luxury’s mounting prices and the increasing cost of living, French shoppers have turned to fast fashion, cheap imports and Chinese mass producers to update their wardrobes.
With local lower-end brands forced into bankruptcy, the French parliament’s lower house is campaigning to introduce measures to make low-cost fast fashion less attractive to buyers.
This legislation would make France the first country in the world to limit the impact of excess ultra-fast fashion.
Though the bill has yet to pass through the French Senate, the key measures will address environmental damage caused by overproduction and textile waste, including:
- A ban on advertising for the cheapest textiles
- Environmental charge on low-cost items
- Limits on production volume
- Limits on speed-to-market to define what constitutes “fast” fashion according to the law
Fast fashion companies will additionally be required to be transparent with consumers about the environmental impact of their production.
Similar to the Seamless Initiative, a surcharge on fast fashion’s eco-footprint of €5 an item is planned for 2025, rising to €10 by 2030.
The proceeds from the charge would be used to subsidize producers of sustainable clothes, allowing them to remain competitive.
Europe’s new directives
In late 2023, Europe reached an initial agreement on supply chain legislation that would make large fashion companies accountable for labor abuses and environmental damage during production.
The EU’s Corporate Due Diligence Directive will require companies to monitor and “prevent, end or mitigate” issues such as pollution, biodiversity loss, slavery and labor exploitation — a landmark agreement for the EU fashion industry.
This directive was created to ensure a more holistic consideration of the supply chain by big brands so that fatal incidents like the Rana Plaza collapse will never happen again.
Despite delays due to backlash from German, French and Italian pro-business politicians and 45 days of negotiations, a final deal was approved by the European Council on March 15.
However, the deal has been significantly reduced from the initial proposal.
Originally for companies with at least 500 employees and a turnover of €150 million, is now for 1,000 employees and a turnover of €450 million.
This is estimated to reduce the number of impacted companies to 30%, to around .05% of the total number of businesses operating in the EU.
The directive is now in the hands of the European parliament.
Meanwhile, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is required for adoption by European companies from mid-2024, with a mid-2026 deadline.
This law requires large companies and listed companies to publish regular reports on the social and environmental risks they face, and on how their activities impact people and the environment.
According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the CSRD will impact businesses globally as it emphasizes a company’s value chain, which is the key contributor to its environmental and social impacts.
Companies within global value chains of businesses operating in Europe will therefore need to provide sustainability data to their European partners or parent companies to ensure compliance with the CSRD.
More recently, the European Parliament approved new rules for the Ecodesign Regulation initiative to make products sold in the EU more reusable, repairable, upgradeable, and recyclable.
The new rules specifically prohibit the destruction of unsold clothing, clothing accessories and footwear, two years after the law comes into force.
The regulation will also introduce digital ‘product passports’ which contain information on performance, traceability, and compliance requirements.
This data will be accessible by the public, to help them make more informed purchasing choices.
The regulations contribute towards the EU’s goal of having net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and further their efforts to reduce environmental harm.
New York’s fashion acts
Since 2022, two laws have been pushed to transform the way fashion operates on a sustainable and ethical level in New York.
The first is the New York Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (known as the Fashion Act), which aims to hold brands — with more than $100 million in revenue doing business in New York — accountable for their impact on workers and the environment.
Its scope would effectively cover every major and many mid-sized fashion brands in the world, with non-compliance carrying penalties of up to 2% of global revenue. Businesses would be required to:
- Map at least 50% of their supply chain across all stages of production and identifying real or potential adverse environmental and social impacts
- Set targets to prevent and improve their environmental and social impacts, including specific targets on how much the Company will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions
- Make and publish disclosures on the amount of material produced annually and how much of this is made up of recycled material; the wages of workers and how this compares with local minimum and living wages; and the Company’s approach for incentivizing supplier performance on worker’s rights.
If it passed through the New York Senate, companies will be given 12 months to adhere to the mapping provisions, and 18 months for impact disclosures.
The bill has the potential to encourage fashion companies to introduce more sustainable business practices to, in turn, inform and change consumer habits.
Another bill vying for approval is the New York State Fashion Workers Act.
This legislation would help models and creatives within the New York fashion industry to more transparent contracts and safer working conditions.
If passed, this act would require model management companies to provide workers with copies of their contracts and agreements, pay them within 45 days of completing a job and implement a zero-tolerance policy for abuse.
The Fashion Act has already been backed by several advocacy groups, as well as brands including Reformation, Patagonia and Stella McCartney as it awaits backing by the Senate.
Image Credit: Belepok
