Fashion Law Journal
H&M known for its fast production and delivery of products to customers at cheap rates and with newer silhouettes, has ranked second in the fashion industry. All that fame earned and wealth created by the company goes to nothing when questions get raised so often in different counts located in different places that the controversy turns into advertising. Lately they have been accused with many charges, greenwashing, misleading, labour assault, and many more.
Lately the company’s been accused of labelling, marketing, and advertising that is a well set up trap for customers to buy the products. The statements from the company promise many things and may seem genuine and truthful in the beginning, everything seems crystal like water until a deep dive is taken and the truth is revealed about how deeply the company impacts the environment and how shallow their promises are. The case filed against H&M on 22 of July 2022 by Chelsea Commodore was another step taken by them to unravel the tied-up truth behind the company’s misleading thread to customers. That was when the customer brought a product labelled “conscious collection” which was supposed to be a piece which made less impact on the environment for which a premium price was paid. And on deeper investigation the customer found out that the price paid for doing something in benefit and favour of the environment was nothing but a mislead path to extra profit for the company. The company’s mislabelling and misleading strategy gained a number of individuals to go against it and turn it into an actual court case. As the court case proceeded the accusations and the number of brutal but true facts about the company made it to the front line and also front pages of many news headlines.
The case states that the company published scoreboards called as sustainable profiles or High sustainable profiles. These were also majorly incorporated into the website the company uses to stay in close touch with its customer base. This churned things more up and not in the most expected way. The churn up was supposed to attract customers but the churn up was negative for the company and also attracted more problems than expected. The major issue was the company misleading and producing false information on the pieces. The pieces with label marked “20% less water” which is supposedly manufactured with 20% less water consumed than other pieces when scrutinised closely used the opposite of stating that was 20% more water which not just nullifies but causes additional burden on the environment by using 20% more water. This is what churned people’s feeling paying a premium price to save or contribute to the environment is what they aimed for but ended up adding more carbon print. When checked up with other products the result was the same: the term written less meant more in actual terms. After the investigation and its result, the company quickly took down the sustainable scoreboards.
The misrepresentation of sustainability followed the company’s larger greenwashing campaign. The mention of certain products in the collection of consciousness. They do mention at least 50% sustainable materials, such as organic cotton and recycled polyester. But knowing properties of polyester it not being non-biodegradable is one thing that pollutes the marine life the most and even while recycling the sheds the small pieces slipped out known as microfibers are not recyclable and takes most on contribution in pollution that fashion industry sends half a million tons of microfibers and knowing the huge scale of operation of H&M in the fast fashion it is enough for us to know how much this company contributes to the toxicants in world. And yet the company stating that its conscious collection is better for the environment makes every single trust put on the company crack little by little, losing their loyal customers.
The other way the company has misled a huge group of people is by placing bins in their stores stating and promising them that all the pieces in bins get recycled whereas the truth is far from it. Coming from studies the capacity to recycle huge lots of fabric is not commercial hence making everyone wonder how the promises are fulfilled by the company. Taking in account the huge number of volumes produced by companies recycling them is a next to impossible and impractical thing to be done and a mislead to promise. There are many studies that also show that instead of recycling these clothes many are sent to sell second hand markets of underdeveloped and developing countries.
H&M is renowned for its fast-selling fashion and cheap clothes which makes most of their freshly arrived new inventory go to waste as pieces and collections are replaced every 2 months. The figures stated the amount of clothing and footwear waste each year went from around 1.4 million tons in 1960 to over 13 million tons in 2018. Which makes approximately 70% of clothing filling the landfills. The global average of these clothes being worn for a year is a quarter. The manufacturing process of H&M also includes very harmful chemicals generating intense amounts of global warming. The raw materials used are hazardous substances which harm the health of both workers and consumers as it affects the environment too. H&M has had many law cases to fight their way like in 2017 the company was put to shame when a Swedish power plant was discovered incinerating discarded H&M clothing. The company was also criticized for unnecessary waste caused due to the volume of pieces they were producing.
Being at top of the game in production and delivering customer just what they want is not something they are wrong at but providing information which is not true, making promises they can’t fulfil, many a times exactly what made and provoking wrong hope in the heart of customers is something which is certainly H&M is guilty of in front of the court, the customers they serve and the entire world. They either have to change the way they falsely market everything or leave the business as it might seem like they are doing great but knowing the way the people have started thinking they for sure are paying the consequences of not working on their ill decisions. Will this new lawsuit be efficient to put H&M to thinking of making a change is what everyone is standing around to see.
Author: Mayuri Jain
