Boohoo fined £2m by French consumer watchdog over false discounts
Fast fashion firm Boohoo has been fined €2.3 million (£2 million) by the French consumer watchdog over misleading pricing practices.
The Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said Boohoo - part of the recently rebranded Debenhams Group, which is listed in London - had given shoppers a false impression about the discounts being offered on the French version of its website.
Manchester-based Boohoo did not take account of previously applied promotions, or even increased prices before applying a discount, according to the DGCCRF.
It found 95% of the listings analysed failed to comply with its rules, with 40% offering no price reduction, 7% offering a smaller discount than advertised and 48% actually increasing prices.
Boohoo also used terms that are banned, such as “leather” or “suede” to describe synthetic products, going against French rules on clothes and footwear labelling.
A Boohoo spokesperson said: “These historic issues relate to a period from October 2023 to February 2024, when the business was under previous management, and are now resolved.
“We have co-operated fully with the regulator, and continue to review how we price and label our products.”
It comes amid a clampdown in France against fast fashion firms.
Chinese online giant Shein was fined €40 million (£34.3 million) by France’s competition watchdog in July last year for misleading discounts.
