The French Senate voted 337 to 1 on 10 June 2025 to approve legislation that will fundamentally alter how ultra-fast fashion operates in Europe’s second-largest clothing market. The bill, authored by centre-right MP Anne-Cécile Violland and originally adopted unanimously by the National Assembly in March 2024, targets Shein and Temu with escalating financial penalties, a blanket advertising ban, and mandatory environmental disclosures no major economy has attempted at this scale.
What the Bill Contains
The legislation introduces a per-item ecological surcharge starting at €5 in 2025, rising annually to €10 by 2030, capped at 50% of a product’s pre-tax retail price. Companies failing to meet minimum environmental criteria face additional penalties of at least €10 per item or half the product’s price, whichever is higher. Revenue funds sustainable fashion initiatives and textile innovation programmes.
From January 2026, all direct and indirect advertising of ultra-fast fashion products is prohibited, including influencer promotions. Influencers breaching this ban face fines of up to €100,000 per offence. Social media “haul” videos – a cornerstone of Shein’s marketing – become explicitly illegal. The restriction mirrors France’s existing tobacco advertising bans, a comparison supporters drew deliberately.
A separate tax of €2 to €4 applies to all parcels under 2kg sent to French households by online marketplaces outside the EU, targeting the direct-from-China shipping model underpinning Shein’s pricing. Brands must display the country of origin visibly near the price at the same font size on every page, alongside mandatory environmental data covering carbon footprint, water usage, chemical toxicity, and recyclability.
Defining “Ultra-Fast Fashion”
The bill creates a new legal category distinct from traditional fast fashion. “Ultra-fast fashion” targets companies introducing excessive volumes of new product references alongside practices that shorten product lifespans, such as disincentivising garment repair. A government decree will set specific thresholds, but the primary targets are volume-based, micro-batch platforms – not Zara or H&M.
Jean-François Longeot, Chair of the Senate’s Sustainable Development Committee, said the changes “make it possible to target players who ignore environmental, social, and economic realities – notably Shein and Temu – without penalising the European ready-to-wear sector.”
The $38 Billion Target
Shein generated $38 billion in global sales in 2024, up 19% year-on-year, with quarterly revenue approaching $10 billion in Q1 2025. The company holds an estimated 18% share of the worldwide fast fashion market, having grown from $3.15 billion in 2019 to $38 billion in five years. In France, Shein’s apparel sales rose 26.7% in 2025, alongside 31% growth in Germany.
Shein’s model depends on three factors the bill attacks: ultra-low per-item pricing, high-volume influencer marketing, and cheap direct-to-consumer shipping from Chinese factories. The company lists 2,000 to 10,000 new styles daily, compared to Zara’s roughly 500 per season. Items typically retail below €10. The €5 to €10 surcharge would double the price of many Shein garments or exceed their retail value entirely.
Shein’s net profit fell approximately 40% in 2024 to roughly $1 billion, down from $1.6 billion in 2023, squeezed by competition with Temu and rising compliance costs. The company’s valuation has dropped from $64 billion in 2023 to an estimated $10 billion as of August 2025, with its IPO pivoted from London to Hong Kong.
The Environmental Case
The textile industry accounts for approximately 10% of global carbon emissions – more than all international aviation and maritime shipping combined, according to the UN Environment Programme. The sector is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide, requiring 93 billion cubic metres annually. Producing a single cotton T-shirt consumes roughly 2,700 litres of water.
Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills – one garbage truck dumped or incinerated every second, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Less than 1% of old clothes are recycled into new garments. Synthetics, now 70% of all clothing materials, derive primarily from fossil fuels; polyester production requires approximately 70 million barrels of oil annually.
Violland cited the trajectory directly: “The textile industry is the biggest polluter, accounting for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, and if we do nothing, we will reach 26% by 2050.”
EU Context and Opposition
France’s bill operates within the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles (March 2022), mandating durable, recyclable textiles on the EU market by 2030. France goes further – the advertising ban, per-item eco-tax, and parcel tax have no EU equivalent. The bill was notified to the European Commission via TRIS on 27 June 2025; as of early 2026, the Commission raised objections, leaving final promulgation uncertain.
The legislative journey has been contentious. After 15 months of debate, Violland criticised the Senate’s version as “completely unraveled,” warning lobbying weakened the bill to “almost nothing.” Environmental NGOs echoed the concern. The European advertising industry challenged the ban on constitutional grounds, and several major retailers pulled French campaigns. Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called the vote “a major step in the fight against the economic and environmental impact of fast fashion.” Italy has since introduced similar legislation, with policymakers in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands studying the French model. Whether the bill survives EU approval, it has shifted the debate: the question for European legislators is no longer whether to regulate ultra-fast fashion, but how aggressively.
Sources: France24 (10 Jun 2025); ESG News (17 Jun 2025); Reuters (10 Jun 2025); The Fashion Law (10 Jun 2025); GlobalData via Fashion Dive (21 Mar 2025); Backlinko/Statista (Jan 2026); EU Commission Textiles Strategy (Mar 2022).
Related: Why the Circular Economy Is Fashion’s Only Future · Sustainability Reporting: What Brands Must Disclose by 2027
