It took only 15 months for Shein to shape the contours of this text. Recently, the Chinese actor enlisted the queen of influencers, Magali Berdah. In a video, which mentions a commercial collaboration with Shein, she indeed meets with the French public to gauge their opinion on the bill with the fervent intention of defending the brand. And while the Minister of Economy Éric Lombard announced on April 29 concrete measures to regulate the arrival of packages from China, particularly from Chinese platforms Shein and Temu, the Chinese actor did not hesitate to counterattack the same week with a high-profile advertising campaign that tugs at the heartstrings of purchasing power to win support, with the slogan “Fashion is a right, not a privilege.” A lobbying effort that began with the hiring in 2023 of Fabrice Layer, former head of public affairs at telecom giant Huawei. Besides Nicole Guedj, a lawyer and former Secretary of State for Victims’ Rights, former President of the International Commission of Medef and the French Insurance Federation Bernard Spitz, former European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, it is especially the very mediatic recruitment, in late 2024, of former Minister Christophe Castaner that has sparked the ire of Shein’s detractors. Christophe Castaner, however, denies being “hired by Shein.” He intervenes “primarily in a consultative capacity, for an average board salary,” through his company Villanelle Conseil. “My goal is to advance the company on CSR issues.” According to Le Monde, a report targeting Shein and several of its representatives in France, including Christophe Castaner, was submitted on May 23 to the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), the French lobbying watchdog. Senator LR Didier Mandelli, vice-president, vehemently condemns this “recruitment”: “It skews the game and supports the theory that it would be enough to have a former Minister of the Interior to influence parliamentarians. It’s a poor understanding of the Senate.” “We are not influenceable,” he hammered this Monday, June 2, during a press briefing. On its part, Shein defends itself from having unraveled this law and claims to act in the name of the millions of French people who buy on its site each year. And confirms that Éric Lombard, the current Minister of Economy, as well as the Minister in charge of Trade Véronique Louwagie and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, have refused to meet them. “We play by the rules by sending them an official email, they refused for scheduling reasons, we call for collective action for a roadmap for a sustainable textile industry by 2030,” explains Shein’s spokesperson, Quentin Ruffat, who supports that this bill “does not achieve its objective as it stands.”
It’s not just Shein’s lobbying that is targeted, but also that of traditional fast-fashion players. This anti fast-fashion bill has thus been “significantly diluted under the weight of lobbies so as not to affect European fast fashion (Primark, Boohoo, etc.),” denounces Victoire Satto, founder of the professional media TheGoodGoods. She criticizes measures that would be less effective, with a high likelihood of being “circumvented by platforms like Shein and Temu,” but also the elimination of support for brands with virtuous practices. According to her, this is a “misalignment with our economic interests,” which leads to the destruction of jobs and the closure of many businesses, such as recently Naf Naf and Jennyfer. On his part, Pierre Condamine, campaign manager on overproduction at Friends of the Earth France, lambasts the amendment to the bill filed by the government on Wednesday, May 28. This indeed eliminates the amount of financial penalties for fast-fashion brands, which could reach up to 10 euros per product by 2030 depending on the pollution generated. The 14 environmental and human rights associations members of the Stop Fashion coalition fear that this law will turn into “an empty shell that sets no malus nor concrete environmental criteria and would even allow the main concerned parties (Shein and Temu) to escape it.”
Senator Sylvie Valente Le Hir, rapporteur of this proposal, refutes all criticism. She acknowledges having met with Shein’s leaders twice, but only “within the framework of her consultations.” Today, she claims her desire to “move as quickly as possible to defend our French sectors” with a text “that is applicable.” This is echoed by the office of the Minister Delegate in charge of Trade Véronique Louwagie, who speaks of “the possibility to act quickly and reactively.” She prefers, rather than a generalized ban on advertising that could be seen as an obstacle to free enterprise for these ultra-fast fashion players, to rely on the law targeting influencers dating from June 2023. The proposal also provides for enhanced sanctions for these platforms, which will go through a threshold of the number of references set by decree later, as well as on the sustainability index of products validated by the Ademe. The initial version of the text provided for a “bonus-malus” which would have been, according to her, “uncertain, optional and rejected by Europe.”
The senator highlights “the unfair competition from Chinese giants on accessible and available brands in our territories,” such as the northern brand Kiabi, which she wishes to “preserve.” The office of the Minister of Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher recalls the destructive model of this ultra-ephemeral fashion. “If we count 2 to 3 Chinese platforms that resort to this practice of ultra-ephemeral fashion, we accumulate more than 5 billion euros in sales in France, which is equivalent to the turnover of 22,000 local businesses. With this figure, everything is said in terms of competition made to our businesses on the territories.” It should be noted that between 2010 and 2023, the clothes put on the market in France have increased from 2.3 billion to 3.2 billion. The Ademe, the environmental agency, specifies that more than 48 garments per inhabitant are put on the market each year in France and 35 are thrown away every second in the country.
