Shein Fined €1 Million in Italy for Greenwashing

Shein is under fire yet again. On Monday, Italy’s antitrust agency, AGCM, fined the Chinese fast-fashion company €1 million ($1.16 million) for making misleading claims about its environmental practices.

Shein, which is said to add up to 10,000 new items to its app every day, “disseminated environmental claims” that were “in some instances vague, generic, and/or overly emphatic, and in others, misleading or omissive,” AGCM said in a statement. The greenwashing fine comes almost one year after Italy launched an investigation into Shein’s environmental claims.

The agency stated that recyclability claims made in the “#SHEINTHEKNOW” section of Shein’s website were “found to be either false or at least confusing” and that claims made by Shein to promote its “evoluShein by Design” line may have led consumers to believe the collection is made solely from sustainable materials. Shein did not clarify that “this line remains a marginal share of the total Shein-branded offering,” AGCM said.

The investigation also found that the fast-fashion company made misleading and vague statements about its intention to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030 and to reach zero emissions by 2050 — and that these statements were contradicted by the fact that Shein’s greenhouse-gas emissions have increased since 2023.

A spokesperson for Shein responded in a statement to the Cut: “We have cooperated fully with the AGCM throughout this process and took immediate action to address the concerns raised as soon as we became aware of them. We have strengthened our internal review processes and improved our website to ensure that all environmental claims are clear, specific, and compliant with regulation.”

This is obviously not the first time the fast-fashion brand has come under scrutiny. In 2023, U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 launched an undercover investigation into two factories in Guangzhou that supply clothes to the brand and found that their practices violated China’s labor laws. Some workers received a base salary of 4,000 yuan per month — roughly $556 — to make 500 pieces of clothing per day. Shein also took influencers on a sponsored trip to try to refute these claims. 

The ruling was announced just over a month after France’s Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention fined Shein €40 million for misleading customers on price reductions and the scope of its “commitments concerning environmental claims.”