France has approved one of the toughest laws anywhere in the world against cheap, fast moving online clothing. The target is clear. Shein, Temu and AliExpress. The penalties grow heavier every year until 2030.
The law passed both houses of the French parliament on Monday, ending more than two years of debate. It still needs to be formally signed by President Emmanuel Macron before it takes legal effect, a step expected to follow soon. The legislation has been nicknamed the anti-Shein law. It does not ban these companies from operating in France. Instead, it makes selling through them more expensive and harder to promote.
Under the new rules, companies classified as ultra fast fashion retailers will face a fine on every product they sell. This year, that fine starts somewhere between 25 cents and 6 euros per item. By 2030, it can rise as high as 20 euros per item, although the total charge can never exceed half the product’s price before tax.
The law also bans advertising for these platforms. That ban extends to influencers, meaning online personalities will no longer be allowed to promote products from companies covered by the law. France’s minister for small enterprises, Serge Papin, explained the thinking behind the crackdown plainly. He said these companies flood the market with disposable clothing, items worn only a few weeks before being thrown away. “What is at stake today is not just clothes, but the societal model we want to defend,” he said.
Working out exactly which companies the law applies to required lawmakers to build a careful definition. Ultra fast fashion, under the new rules, is identified by two main measures. The first looks at how many different products a company releases and how quickly it rotates its catalogue. The second compares the price of an item against how much it would cost to repair it, a way of capturing how disposable a garment really is.
That definition was chosen deliberately to catch online-only retailers like Shein, Temu and AliExpress while leaving traditional fast fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Kiabi outside the law’s reach. Those European companies also sell large volumes of low cost clothing quickly, and that exemption has drawn sharp criticism from environmental groups and politicians on the left.
Green Party lawmaker Charles Fournier argued the law had been considerably scaled back from its original ambition, pointing out that brands like Zara and H&M are far from being models of sustainable fashion themselves. A coalition called Stop Fast Fashion, which includes groups such as Emmaüs and Friends of the Earth, described the final version as greatly watered down compared with what was first proposed.
See Also: Monaco rocked by suspected bomb attack targeting Ukrainian tycoon Vadym Yermolaiev
Anne-Cécile Violland, the centre-right lawmaker who put the bill forward, defended the narrower approach as a practical necessity. She said the priority was a law that could be passed quickly and actually put into operation, rather than a more ambitious version that might never get through parliament at all. She described the current text as hitting Shein very hard as a first step, with room for further measures later.
According to reports, Shein responded to the law’s passage with a statement raising legal concerns. The company said several provisions appeared to be at odds with existing European Union rules governing digital services and online commerce. Temu and AliExpress did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The advertising ban is widely seen as the most legally uncertain part of the law. The European Commission has already raised questions about whether it fully complies with European rules on digital services. French officials have acknowledged that if Brussels challenges this part of the legislation, enforcing it could prove difficult.
This is not France’s first move against these companies. The country introduced a 2 euro fee on low value parcels arriving from outside the European Union back in March. The European Union itself is preparing a separate 3 euro customs charge on similar low value parcels entering the bloc, expected to come into force later this year. Shein was also fined 22 million euros by French authorities in June over separate consumer protection violations. And the Paris department store BHV recently announced it would end its partnership with Shein, just months after the company opened its first ever physical retail space inside the store.
The wider context behind all this activity is environmental. The textile industry is responsible for close to ten per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to widely cited estimates. Clothes that are easy to order and just as easy to discard contribute significantly to that pollution, along with mounting textile waste in landfills across the world.
Whether France’s law meaningfully changes shopping habits remains to be seen. Shein, Temu and AliExpress have grown explosively in the French market over the past three years, becoming household names almost overnight. The law represents the most serious attempt yet by a major European country to slow that growth down, even if critics on both sides argue it does not go far enough, or that it unfairly singles out foreign platforms while letting comparable domestic and European brands continue largely unchecked.
