A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore April 4, 2024. REUTERS
ROME, Aug 4 (Reuters) – Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) on Monday announced a 1-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine on Chinese fast fashion online retailer Shein for misleading customers on the environmental impact of its products.
The fine was imposed on Infinite Styles Services CO. Limited, a Dublin-based company that operates Shein’s website in Europe, at the end of a “greenwashing” investigation that Italian watchdog had opened in September.
AGCM said the environmental sustainability and social responsibility claims promoted on Shein’s website “were sometimes vague, generic, and/or overly emphatic, and in other cases omitted and misleading.”
The Italian authority said its assessment was influenced by an “increased duty of care” falling on Shein, “because it operates in (the) highly polluting sector and with highly polluting methods” of fast and super-fast fashion.
Reuters has contacted the company for a comment.
When the investigation was launched last year, the company said it was “ready to cooperate openly with relevant Italian authorities, providing the necessary support and information to address any inquiries”.
Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Cristina Carlevaro
