Fast Fashion Act: final push to protect the French textile industry

Since the proposed law to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry, known as the Fast Fashion law, was tabled in early 2024, the Impact France Movement has been strongly mobilized to ensure that this law is equal to the challenges facing our industry. 

The system of overproduction of low-cost clothing and constant renewal of collections, characteristic of the fast fashion industry, was already threatening made in France production. But in recent years, it has also had to face up to the emergence of what is now known as ultra fast fashion, including Shein and Temu, for example. 

This text could have crucial consequences because, in combating the excesses of ultra-fast fashion that undermine the rest of the textile industry, it has social, ecological and economic objectives: on the one hand, to reduce the enormous environmental damage and negative social impacts it generates, and on the other, to guarantee fair competition and preserve the competitiveness of French brands and factories in the textile sector.

A victory in the National Assembly, threatened in the Senate 

On March 14, 2024, we reached a major milestone with the unanimous adoption of an ambitious bill on first reading in the French National Assembly. The transparent adoption of a definition of fast fashion as well as several key principles to effectively combat unfair competition is a victory for French textile companies committed to ethical and responsible fashion.

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More than a year later, and after numerous postponements, the Senate has finally put the bill on its agenda for next June. However, the changes made by the committee in charge of the bill last February run the risk of the text losing its original ambition. 

Read our press release

An essential law to preserve the competitiveness of French brands and factories in the textile sector

To ensure that the law is effective, Impact France advocates maintaining the ambition of the text as voted by the French National Assembly, based on several key principles: 

• A bonus-malus system indexed to environmental labelling, which would reward virtuous production methods and thus support Made in France by penalizing companies adopting fast-fashion practices. 

• The inclusion of multi-brand sales platforms in the definition of fast fashion, at the risk of significantly reducing the scope of the law. 

• A blanket ban on advertising for fast-fashion brands, to prevent expenditure from being shifted to other media, and consequently higher advertising costs for other players in the sector. 

• Geographical extension of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) by financing collection and recycling infrastructures in non-EU countries, to prevent any risk of environmental disasters.  

As the final adoption of this text approaches, Impact France remains fully mobilized to safeguard its initial ambition and effectiveness, and calls on the Senate to seize the opportunity to guarantee an efficient and competitive regulatory framework for our companies and jobs. 

"Brands and factories are waiting for a law that puts the brakes on the fast fashion business model." Julia Faure, Co-President of Impact France

Listen to Julia Faure's interview on France Inter