Sylvie Gallage-Alwis, Partner at Signature Litigation, explains how a bill passing through the French Parliament aims to challenge unsustainable business models in the apparel sector.
Fast fashion has transformed how we buy our clothes, generating more than US$1.7 billion in global sales revenues last year. More recently, ultra-fast fashion clothing has emerged, providing greater choice at an even lower cost. Despite the obvious benefits to consumers, the French Parliament wants to limit its environmental and sustainability impact through regulation. A bill (no. 2129) passed in March 2024 by the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, is a first step in that direction.
As a relatively new phenomenon, no legal definition exists. Although the English phrase ‘fast fashion’ is commonplace in France, specific French terms are also used, which translate as: short-lived fashion, express fashion, flash fashion, and disposable fashion. Such label diversity makes itdifficult to define legally.
It could be argued that a company creates fast fashion when production cycles are shortened to ensure a constant renewal of product lines at low prices. Mass production now dominates, representing seven out of every ten items of clothing sold in France. But companies producing ultra-fast fashion go further still: even cheaper than their competitors, they offer up to 10,000 new items in real time online – up to 900 times more products than traditional French brands.
Fast fashion was clearly targeted in a report published in February 2024 by France’s General Inspectorate for the Environment and Sustainable Development (IGEDD). Using the criterion of synthetic fibres in the manufacture of clothing, it accused fast fashion companies of creating pollution through their use of microplastics.
Other attempts to define fast fashion have focused on the number of new product lines, known as ‘references’, an industry-specific practice. Following discussion in the French National Assembly over Bill no. 2129, the definition of fast fashion was extended to include sales made online.
Included in the bill’s definition is a calculation of the number of references “displayed on the electronic interface” by e-market suppliers – to be based on thresholds set by decree by the French Council of State. Notably, the number of unsold items will not be considered in the calculation, provided that these unsold items were not originally owned by the sellers.
The French Parliament has tried to regulate fast fashion before – for example, the 2020 ‘anti-waste’ law, which introduced a