The latest on regulations and sustainability compliance laws for the fashion industry.
When?
Since the 1st of January 2023, fashion brands and retailers have faced new labeling challenges for selling their products in France. Article 13 I of the French law on the fight against waste and the circular economy of February 10th, 2020 (AGEC) harmonizes, frames, and specifies, in terms of both content and presentation, a number of environmental claims.
The implementation concerns the fashion sector for clothing textile products, linen, shoes, and household packaging, is progressive and based on the brand’s annual revenues and amount of units placed on the French market per year:
- January 1, 2023: companies with annual revenue > EUR 50 million & 25,000 units on the French market.
- January 1, 2024: companies with annual revenue > EUR 20 million & 10,000 units on the French market.
- January 1, 2025: companies with annual revenue > EUR 10 million & 10,000 units on the French market.
Why?
As the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries globally, and the French government has taken steps to tackle the issue by implementing the AGEC law. This law aims to reduce waste and promote a circular economy. It requires companies to provide transparent and accurate environmental information to consumers, ensuring they are well-informed about the products they purchase.
What?
The manufacturers of the products concerned have the obligation to publish a product sheet on their website or on a dedicated web page presenting the environmental qualities and characteristics of these models:
- Product traceability: I.e. the countries where the weaving or knitting, making, dyeing, and printing stages were carried out for clothing and the stitching. And assembly and finishing stages for shoes.
- Presence of plastic microfibers: According to the percentage of synthetic fibers in the product.
- Incorporation of recycled materials: Including the percentage of recycled materials in the product.
- Recyclability: According to a series of several specific areas.
- Presence of dangerous substances: Based on the SVHCs declared under REACH.
In addition, information about the packaging of fashion products must be disclosed:
- Incorporation of recycled materials
- Recyclability
- Possibility of reuse
- Presence of dangerous substances
First steps to address the AGEC law with BCome
To comply with the AGEC law together with BCome, your company will only have to follow a few simple steps:
- Coordinate the traceability of your supply chain involving a single person from your team, the Supply Manager, Product Manager, or Sustainability Manager, if available. The data collection process will take about 3 to 5 weeks.
- Once traceability is completed, you can sit back and relax, your company impact data will be available on BCome’s platform in just 7 days.
- After the delivery of results, you’ll be able to run BCome’s digitization tools to easily share the information required by the AGEC law in each of your products.
The creation of impact labels is automatic thanks to BCome’s e-commerce integration and Smart Labels. Two tools that will allow you to quickly and accurately share all the information required by the AGEC law in each of your items.
Consequences of non-compliance with AGEC law in the fashion industry
Failure to comply with this legislation has implications. A control and sanction system is provided in case of non-compliance with the defined obligations and any breach is subject to administrative fines.