Italy’s consumer and competition watchdog has fined the online fast-fashion giant Shein €1 million after finding it had made misleading environmental claims.
The penalty from Italian Regulator, the AGCM, has been levied on Infinite Styles Services Co. Ltd, the company responsible for trading Shein’s products in Europe. It follows similar enforcement on Shein in France last month.
In promoting and selling Shein’s products in Italy, Infinite Styles Services engaged in “misleading and/or deceptive environmental messages and claims,” said the AGCM in a press release about Shein’s bogus “green claims”.
The AGCM objected to several sections of Shein’s website, including the “SHEININTHEKNOW”, “evoluSHEIN” and “Social Responsibility” sections – where it found the company made environmental claims that were “vague, generic and/or overtly emphatic” or “misleading or omissive.”
In its full decision, the Italian authority notes that the problematic content has existed on Shein’s website since at least 2023.
Last month, the fast-fashion giant faced similar enforcement by France’s consumer watchdog – although in that case it was hit with a larger fine (€40 million) over a number of issues, including deceptive environmental claims.
Both regulators called out a claim by Shein suggesting it would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030. The AGCM dubbed this contradictory – pointing out that Shein’s greenhouse gas emissions actually increased in 2023 and 2024.
Reached for comment on the AGCM’s findings, a Shein spokesperson emailed Euractiv a statement in which it claimed to have taken “immediate action to address the concerns raised as soon as we became aware of them”.
The statement added that it has “improved our website to ensure that all environmental claims are clear, verifiable, and compliant with regulations.”
The Italian authority told Euractiv that Shein’s “unfair commercial practice began at least in January 2023 and is still ongoing.”
Asked about the relatively small size of the penalty, the AGCM said that its “Codice del consumo” sets a maximum penalty of €10 million, adding: “In any case, the penalty must be proportionate to the turnover of the company fined.”
According to the authority’s decision on Shein, Infinite Styles Services reported the e-commerce platform generated revenue of just €3 million in Italy for 2023.
Separately, the fast-fashion giant is facing probes into alleged breaches of EU consumer laws involving multiple national consumer authorities, and an ongoing investigation under the bloc’s online governance rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA). However, so far, the retailer has not face any EU-wide fines.
(nl)
