France, the arbiter of sartorial heritage, has taken a big step towards challenging the future of fashion. The French government has passed a major amendment to its climate bill aimed at ultra-fast fashion, cracking down both on the brands and the influencers who promote them.
France’s challenge to fast fashion now includes banning influencers from promoting the worst offenders, by adding penalties in the form of environmental fines and advertising restrictions, as well as sanctions. These measures target the hyper-speed, hyper-cheap models of companies like Shein, Temu, and Aliexpress – brands whose business relies on algorithm-driven trend replication and relentless product drops. Under the new law, influencers in France are prohibited from partnering with or promoting these companies across social media platforms, with the aim of reducing the cultural demand that fuels overconsumption.
The penalties are designed to escalate based on the volume of items produced and sold, sending a financial message to companies profiting from unsustainable practices. Perhaps more significantly, the unprecedented inclusion of influencer marketing in the bill acknowledges how deeply enmeshed fashion consumption is with digital culture, and redirects some of the responsibility back to consumers for their participation in fashion’s culture of hyper-consumption. In France’s view, the problem is equally what and how something is made, and how aggressively it’s sold to consumers. Influencer hauls have become symbolic and literal expressions of this aggression. By targeting the entire ecosystem, from production to promotion, France is laying the groundwork for a new regulatory model that recognises the social and environmental cost of fashion’s current pace.
Photography by Artem Podrez and Ron Lach, via Pexels
To be clear, this is not an outright ban on fast fashion. The likes of Zara and H&M are still on the racks, and Shein’s website isn’t blocked in France. The new legislation builds on France’s existing anti-waste and circular economy laws, first introduced in 2020. This latest update is a signal that voluntary sustainability commitments and marketing fluff have done little to dissuade the behaviour of both brands and consumers, and that a policy with penalties might be the only thing to ensure compliance, especially as the industry refuses to regulate itself.
Social media personalities have become central figures in ultra-fast fashion’s meteoric rise. With discount codes, glossy hauls, and hyper-targeted content, they have become digital storefronts for brands pumping out thousands of low-cost garments daily. By cutting off this channel, France is attacking the machinery of demand, and it’s a recognition that culture, and what we see, aspire to, and emulate, is as important as carbon emissions and labour practices when it comes to reshaping the fashion system.
Very honestly, it’s long overdue. For years, influencers have played a role in normalising disposable fashion cycles, often with little accountability. Now, in France at least, that role comes with consequences.
At CEC, we have often recognised the class differences between access and choice, acknowledging that fast fashion can facilitate a sense of inclusion in a world fractured by wealth disparity. Still, in South Africa, our local retail industry and economy has taken a massive knock, as the likes of Shein and Temu now offer local consumers unfettered access to ultra-cheap clothing, delivered directly to their doors, and often bypassing traditional import duties and undercutting local brands on both price and speed.
Shein alone made $38 billion in revenue in 2024, moving faster and more aggressively than any legacy player ever dreamed. Their algorithm-driven model mines trends from social platforms, uses predictive analytics to identify demand before it emerges, and delivers new products in days.
While this bill is a big move, it falls short of addressing an elephant in the room; namely, the culpability of traditional fast fashion brands like Zara and H&M – whose business models also depend on high volumes, outsourced labour, and short design cycles. Their influence is still protected under the veil of legitimacy, despite having pioneered many of the same exploitative systems.
It’s convenient to frame this issue as an external one, driven by Chinese platforms, but European and American fashion empires have long relied on similar mechanisms of social and ecological exploitation. If this regulation is to be credible long term, it must widen its lens. One reason for the selective targeting may be geopolitical convenience, as it’s far easier to go after ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu, which are based in China, than to confront European-owned giants like H&M and Zara. Trade relations within the EU (Zara is Spanish-owned and H&M is Swedish-owned) add layers of complexity, making it politically and economically more difficult to impose restrictions on companies operating within the bloc, even if their business models are similarly exploitative.
France’s move is a clear acknowledgment that we can’t shop our way to sustainability. It signals a willingness to interfere with business-as-usual, and it’s a rare example of government policy catching up with cultural realities. Still, we must stay clear-eyed. These penalties are relatively modest; just a few euros per garment, and enforcement will be a battle. Each of us must contend with the ethical battle of fast fashion and clothing designed to expire by next month, and created out of algorithmic analysis of our wants and desires online.
Written by Holly Beaton
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