The French Senate has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new bill to regulate ultra-fast fashion, marking what many campaigners see as a necessary and overdue pushback against a model of consumption that disproportionately harms women, not only as consumers but as workers and citizens.
The legislation introduces a raft of measures designed to slow down the industry’s speed and environmental impact, including a ban on advertising for ultra-fast fashion, new labelling rules on environmental impact, and financial penalties for the worst offenders. Crucially, the bill singles out non-EU giants like Shein and Temu, whose rock-bottom prices and relentless production cycles have disrupted not just the retail market but the environmental and labour standards expected in Europe.
Companies that score lowest on environmental criteria will face taxes of up to €5 per item from 2025, rising to €10 by 2030. Free returns, one of the pillars of fast fashion convenience, will be banned, and influencers promoting ultra-fast fashion items may be sanctioned.
Although still requiring approval from a joint parliamentary committee later this year, the near-unanimous Senate vote sends a clear message: this model is no longer welcome in France.
While the bill has been framed through an environmental lens, it also carries strong social implications, particularly for women. The vast majority of garment workers globally are women, many of whom work in exploitative conditions for little pay. According to the Clean Clothes Campaign, more than 80% of garment workers in countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, and China are women, many earning less than a living wage and working without union protections. The rapid turnover required by ultra-fast fashion only intensifies the pressures on these women to produce more for less.
At the same time, the business model of companies like Shein leans heavily on aggressive social media marketing, especially through influencers targeting young women and teenage girls. These platforms normalise excessive consumption, creating a cycle of buying and discarding that not only strains wallets but also contributes to rising anxiety and low self-esteem.
French ecological transition minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher described the bill as a response to a “triple threat”: environmental degradation, economic pressure on domestic brands, and overconsumption. While that framing covers important ground, it still understates the way ultra-fast fashion relies on a gendered economy of extraction, extracting labour, attention and disposable income, mostly from and at the expense of women.
Some environmental organisations have criticised the bill for being watered down in its final version, with exemptions for European fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M. While they are not subject to the strictest penalties, they are still required to increase transparency around environmental impact and may face greater scrutiny in future legislation.
Even so, the bill is being viewed by many campaigners as a breakthrough. Victoire Satto, founder of sustainability platform The Good Goods, called it “an historic and very significant moment,” while also warning that proper enforcement and continued pressure will be essential. France’s Textiles Industry Union echoed the sentiment, describing it as a “first step” towards a more sustainable and accountable fashion sector.
For feminist campaigners, there is cautious optimism. Any attempt to slow the pace of this industry (and reduce the volume of cheap clothes flooding the market) is also an attempt to challenge the economic structures that exploit women’s labour, attention and bodies.
It’s also a change in accountability. For years, responsibility has been offloaded onto consumers (typically women) to shop “ethically” within systems that make fast fashion the most visible, affordable and accessible option. This bill switches the focus to the companies profiting from this imbalance.
The challenge, as always, will be implementation. France may be ahead of the curve, but it will need support across the EU to make such policies stick. There is also the question of whether platforms like Shein will find ways to circumvent these restrictions, just as they have in other regions.
Still, it is significant that the first meaningful legal curb on ultra-fast fashion has passed in a country with a long-standing fashion industry, where economic and cultural stakes are high. That it happened with cross-party support, and with relatively little public backlash, shows a growing awareness that the cost of cheap clothes is being paid elsewhere, in the lives and rights of women, in the health of the planet, and in the growing inequality between those producing these clothes and those consuming them.
Whether or not this becomes a turning point will depend on what follows. But for now, France has sent a clear signal and for many women around the world, that is a win worth recognising.
