France fines Boohoo €2.3 million over deceptive discounts on website

PARIS, Aug 20 : France's consumer watchdog fined British fast-fashion retailer Boohoo €2.3 million ($2.69 million) for deceptive practices such as fake discounts on its website, it said on Thursday.

Boohoo exaggerated the discounts it was offering, giving shoppers a false impression of the savings they were making, the DGCCRF (Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) said in a statement.

Of the promotions analysed by the watchdog, 40 per cent were not real price reductions, 7 per cent were a lower reduction than advertised, and 48 per cent were in fact a price increase, it said.  

Boohoo also used terms like "leather" or "suede" to sell synthetic products, going against French rules on product labelling, the regulator said.

Boohoo did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

The French government has led a crackdown on online fast-fashion businesses, particularly targeting Chinese platforms Shein and Temu, and lawmakers in June passed an anti-fast-fashion law imposing fines on what they called "disposable" clothing.