Italy Mirrors France’s Step with Ultra-Fast Fashion Tax Initiative

Italy is preparing to curb ultra-fast fashion. A bill submitted Wednesday by the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Confindutria Moda and Altagamma, along with other associations, is under review and could be approved in the coming weeks. If given the green light, Italy would impose an additional tax on ultra fast fashion products, which would also apply to local manufacturers.

The president of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Carlo Capasa, the president of Confindustria Moda, Luca Sburlati, and the president of Altagamma, Matteo Lunelli, among other heads of associations, met in Rome with the country’s Minister of Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, the Italian Minister of Fashion.s Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, where they discussed draft laws aimed at addressing the influx of ultra-fast fashion products as well as the system for safeguarding the supply chain from infiltration by illegal practices.

The Italian government is pushing a bill to address the impact of low-cost imported products by drawing on the European Union’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) directive, which is currently under review in the Senate Committee.

Italy would impose an additional tax on ultra fast fashion products, as well as on local manufacturers

Italy could impose an additional tax on ultra fast fashion products that are linked to other manufacturers’ end-of-life liability conditions, as well as the textile waste they generate.

If the law is passed, it will also have to be complied with by local manufacturers. “In the coming days we will present a measure to address the phenomenon of ultra fast fashion: an influx of low-cost foreign products that harms our manufacturers and puts consumers at risk,“ said Urso, minister of enterprise.

“The massive diversion of Chinese overproduction to the European market, driven in part by U.S. protectionist policies, is taking place through digital platforms that falsely present themselves as Made in Italy and offer products at extremely low prices at a time when consumers are particularly price-sensitive,“ he added.