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The French National Assembly (lower house) unanimously passed a new legislation on March 14 to bring ultra-fast fashion (ultra-fast fashion) e-commerce companies such as Shein and Temu into regulation, and plans to regulate every fast fashion item from 2025. Fashion products will be subject to an ecological footprint surcharge of 5 euros (approximately NT$170), which will gradually rise to 10 euros by 2030, with the maximum charge being 50% of the selling price of the product.
It is understood that the basic concept of the bill is that polluters pay, with the purpose of promoting public awareness and curbing people's consumption impulses that have adverse effects on the environment, society and economy. As for the ecological footprint surcharge collected, it is planned to be used to establish a special fund to support sustainable clothing brands, or the country's new clothing and shoe repair subsidy program .
The bill is currently being sent to the Senate for further consideration. In addition to levying an ecological footprint surcharge, the draft also prohibits advertising of these low-cost fast fashions (including live broadcasts of unboxings by Internet celebrities for promotion), and the bad impact of products on the environment must be marked on the homepage.
It is understood that the bill intends to define "fast fashion" based on production volume and speed. It is also mainly targeted at online companies, so it may not include brands with physical stores in France such as Zara and H&M.
Among them, Shein has become the focus of this legislative discussion because it launches an average of more than 7,200 new pieces of clothing every day and provides more than 470,000 products. If the future bill sets the standard to more than 1,000 new styles every day, then only the two Chinese giants Shein and Temu will bear the brunt.
However, there are currently environmental organizations actively calling for lowering the threshold to "more than 5,000 new styles per year." If the final result is this version, brands such as H&M, Zara, Primark, and platforms such as Amazon will be included.
Regarding the bill, Shein said that "the definition of fast fashion is still very vague" and suggested that the legislation should be based on sales rate rather than output, adding that Shein's unsold garment rate "is always in the low single digits."
Temu, a cross-border platform owned by another Chinese company, Pinduoduo, argued that Temu is just a platform and does not have its own brand.
As for Reformation, a representative of affordable fast fashion who embeds the idea of being friendly to the earth into the brand, he said that ultra-fast fashion brands are a manifestation of the "crazy excess" of the fashion industry. Using regulation as a tool to drive change may be the only option, as slowing overconsumption seems unlikely in a market where demand is strong and has yet to subside.