Fashion anti-fast law will be debated by the French Senate in the week of May 19

The bill on the environmental impact of the textile industry is progressing in France, more than a year after being presented in the Senate after a unanimous vote in the National Assembly, the Parliament of France.

The date for the bill of the bill was postponed sine die At the beginning of the year, causing generalized discontent within environmental organizations and parts of the fashion industry. On March 19, news of a new calendar emerged, and now the bill is expected to be discussed by the Senate in the week of May 19.

The announcement was made at the National Assembly for Véronique Louwagie, the minister in charge of commerce, crafts, SMEs and social and community economy, answering questions from Olivia Grégoire, deputy and former minister with the same Remit, about government initiatives to protect companies and employees in fashion and crafts sectors.

“There are more and more product flows [into France] of foreign platforms. A new fashion model has been created, which has an important environmental, social and economic impact, “Louwagie said.” Yes, we need to act in several domains. The first is Europe. France firmly supports the review of the threshold for the exemption of customs tasks in low value plots. It is a problem that has to do with the fight against fraud. Discussions are also ongoing at the EU level on the introduction of non -discriminatory management rates to finance customs services. We must also act at the national level, this is the purpose of the bill that was examined this morning in a Senate committee and that I say that you know, it will probably be debated by the Senate during the week of May 19. The government is pressing in this direction, “Louwagie added.

Environmental associations exert pressure on the French Senate at the end of last week, depositing textile waste near the upper camera. On the morning of March 19, the Senate Regional and Sustainable Development Committee worked on the bill that was first written by parliamentarians more than a year ago. Directed by Sylvie Valente-Le Hir, the rapporter of the bill in the Senate, the Committee made a series of changes that were approved unanimously.

“The bill now includes several other elements, including a more precise definition of fast fashion, which focuses on the amplitude of the range, but also on the fact that the prices charged do not encourage [garment] Repairs, ”said Louwagie, speaking in the National Assembly. Crucially, he also indicated that fast fashion products will be penalized not simply on the basis of their environmental impact, but also due to the specific commercial practices of fast fashion electronic tails. The announcement of the minister of a possible date for the discussion of the bill was found with a sustained round of applause, confirming interest in the subject.

Eleven amendments

The Senate Committee in charge of the bill has completed its work in the text approved by the National Assembly. Eleven amendments have been adopted, of the 25 presented before the Committee. Some amendments were discarded because they considered themselves irrelevant or simply legislative riders. Three were rejected. One worried when the penalty threshold for fast fashion products increased. A second was aimed at incorporating, in article 2 of the bill, the notion of “social criteria based on respect for human rights”, in addition to environmental aspects. The third, still within article 2, was an amendment that proposed to insert a paragraph destined to grant a bonus based on social criteria, in addition to those attributed for better environmental performance.

So what were the 11 amendments adopted by the Senate Committee? They did not question the original spirit of the law, specifying in particular the type of practices and entities that will be directed, especially those that “facilitate, through the use of a digital interface, such as a market, a website, a similar portal or device, sale of distance and the delivery of products” and whose strategy is based on a rapid collection renewal. It was also specified that the thresholds [applied to fast fashion] It will take into account the “number of new items per unit of time, the number of different items and the short duration of your marketing period”. Consumers must be informed through warnings that are close to the prices of products on platforms in questions, with respect to “[consumption] restriction, reuse, repair and recycling of products, and creating awareness about their environmental impact. “

The bill will stipulate that a contact person for fast fashion players must be identified in France. They must be “a natural or legal person based in France, acting as a representative responsible for guaranteeing compliance with the obligations related to the responsibility scheme of the extended producer.” The bill establishes a system of sanctions and bonuses. The Senate Committee significantly indicated that “financial contributions will vary … based in particular on the results obtained when applying the environmental score methodology … Ecoorganization specifications stipulate that the additional contributions collected will be reassigned will be reassigned mainly in the form of bonds to the manufacturers of those products that meet the ecological design criteria for a better environmental performance.” The bill suggests that product sanctions could be valued at € 5 in 2025, € 6 in 2026, € 7 in 2027, € 8 in 2028, € 9 in 2029 and € 10 in 2030. Such increasingly high penalties are designed to press the sector to change. A paragraph also stipulates that part of the money collected will be used by “ecoorganizations to finance the collection and recycling infrastructure in countries that are not of the EU”.

Another area covered by the Senate Committee is advertising: there must be a prohibition of advertising and influence marketing for certain players. Finally, two new items were added to the bill (articles 6 and 7), which requires the government to produce ad hoc reports. Article 6 establishes that “within six months after the promulgation of this law, the Government will submit to Parliament a report that examines the opportunity to extend the mechanism of adjustment of the carbon border to textile products manufactured outside the territory of the European Union.” This means subjecting products imported to the customs territory of the European Union to a carbon issuance rate equivalent to that applied to European manufacturers that produce the same items. Finally, with the same spirit, article 7 requires that a report take a stock after a year “of mirror measures on the borders of the European domestic market to impose European, social and environmental standards in imports of textile products with a quick and very fast rotation.”

Above all, the Senate Committee is anxious to work towards a change of approach, and has analyzed “the opportunity to reverse the burden of proof at the time of the entry of the products into the European Union; then it would be the exporter's responsibility to demonstrate that its products have occurred according to European standards.”

Given the tense global geopolitical context, especially in the field of commercial relations, the debates in the French Senate, planned for May, are probably intense and delicate.