the launch of an investigation<\/a> last year by AGCM into the company over concerns of misleading advertising claims made on the site regarding the environmental sustainability of Shein branded clothing. In a statement released announcing the fine, the AGCM said that it found that the company disseminated environmental claims that were, in some instances, vague, generic, or overly emphatic, and in others, misleading or omissive, on its website, and in other promotional or informational online pages.<\/p>\nIn a statement provided to ESG Today, a Shein spokesperson said that the company \u201ccooperated fully with the AGCM throughout this process,\u201d and added that Shein \u201ctook immediate action to address the concerns raised as soon as we became aware of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ruling comes as the fashion sector has come under particular pressure to address the climate and environmental impact of its activities, and to tackle misleading green claims in its advertising, and follows a record \u20ac40 million fine against Shein in July in France for misleading communications on price discounts and environmental impact.<\/p>\n
Among the findings, the AGCM said that in the company\u2019s website\u2019s #SHEINTHEKNOW\u00a0section, environmental assertions regarding the \u201cdesign of a circular system\u201d or the recyclability of products, were found to be either false or at least confusing, while claims highlighting the use of \u201cgreen\u201d fibers used to promote garments in the\u00a0evoluSHEIN by Design\u00a0line did not \u00a0clearly specify the substantial environmental benefits of these products throughout their full life cycle, and also failed to point out that the line represented only a marginal share of the total Shein-branded offering. The competition authority added that the claims could lead consumers to believe that the\u00a0evoluSHEIN by Design\u00a0collection is made solely from \u201csustainable\u201d materials, and that its products are fully recyclable, which the AGCM said does not reflect reality.<\/p>\n
In addition, the AGCM pointed out that statements by the company about its intention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030 and to reach zero emissions by 2050 are presented on its website in a vague and generic way, and have been contradicted by an increase in the company\u2019s emissions in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
The Shein spokesperson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have strengthened our internal review processes and improved our website to ensure that all environmental claims are clear, verifiable, and compliant with regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) announced\u00a0that it has fined global fashion online retailer Shein\u2019s website operator Infinite Styles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-56538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}