00:01So the French government has just started implementing fees on fast fashion items.
00:07And what's really interesting is how they're defining these fees.
00:13So the fees are being decided based on the range of items that a retailer offers on its website.
00:20And the bigger the range of items, the higher the fees.
00:25What's really interesting about that is that Shein and Timu are widely known to have an extremely wide assortment of
00:32items available online.
00:34For Shein, it's about two million different apparel styles that they offer at any one time.
00:40It seems to be part of France's targeted attempt to crack down on these fast fashion platforms.
00:47Now, in a briefing by officials, they actually confirmed that retailers like Zara and H&M would most likely not
00:56be as impacted by these fees.
01:00However, this is part of a EU wide initiative called the Textile Waste Directive in the European Union.
01:10All member states have to buy April 2028.
01:15They have to have set up a system by which they collect fees from retailers to to basically fund textile
01:24collection and sorting and recycling.
01:26So this is what's called extended producer responsibility.
01:30That is the framework within which France is announcing this initiative.
01:35However, the way that France is deciding on the fees is quite different to what other member states are doing.
01:43For example, in the Netherlands, the fees are decided based on the volume of clothing sold by any one retailer
01:49in the country rather than the size of its online range.
01:54And so it's that criteria that some are saying is specifically targeting Shein and Timu and these and these platforms
02:02with a vast online offering.
02:06These fees from France come hot on the heels of a three euro customs fee that was imposed by the
02:13EU on all cheap e-commerce parcels starting July 1st.
02:18Now, that was a big reversal after previously all e-commerce parcels under 150 euros could come into the block
02:26duty free.
02:27And now those parcels are charged fees of three euros per separate item.
02:33So that means that the end fee is not necessarily just three euros, but could be up to 15 euros
02:38if there's five different types of items in a parcel.
02:41So that's significantly increased the prices on these e-commerce sites and also led to a decrease in sales for
02:51Shein and other platforms.
02:54We've asked Shein and Timu repeatedly for a comment on these fees and we've got no response.
03:00However, we do know that Shein's head spokesman in France has previously said in media interviews that the fees would
03:08only result in higher prices for consumers and that that would hurt consumers.
03:13So that's been their argument. China itself has actually responded to France's new fast fashion law with the Commerce Ministry
03:22expressing serious concern and saying that it imposes discriminatory restrictions on Chinese cross border e-commerce platforms and distorts fair
03:32competition.
03:33So there has been a bit of pushback from China directly.
03:36So there has been a bit of pushback from China directly.
