France fines Boohoo €2.3 million over deceptive discounts on website

PARIS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - ‌France's consumer watchdog ​fined ​British fast-fashion retailer Boohoo €2.3 million ($2.7 million) for deceptive practices such as fake discounts on ‌its website, it said on Thursday.

Boohoo exaggerated the ⁠discounts it was offering, giving shoppers a false impression of the ‌savings they were making, ‌the DGCCRF (Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) said in a statement.

Of the promotions analysed by the ​watchdog, 40% were not real price reductions, 7% were a lower reduction than advertised, and 48% ⁠were in fact a price increase, it said.

Boohoo also used terms like "leather" or "suede" ​to sell synthetic products, going against French rules on product labelling, the regulator said.

A spokesperson ​for Boohoo said the issues ‌related to a period from October 2023 to February 2024, when the business was ⁠under its previous management, and are now resolved.

"We have cooperated fully with the regulator, and continue to review how we ⁠price and label our products," the spokesperson said.

Shares in Boohoo ​parent Debenhams were down 2.4% at 1125 GMT.

The French government has led a crackdown on online fast-fashion businesses, particularly targeting Chinese ‌platforms Shein and Temu, and lawmakers in June passed an anti-fast-fashion law imposing fines ‌on what they called "disposable" clothing.

In July last year, Shein ⁠was fined €40 million by ‌France's antitrust agency for ​misleading discounts.

($1 = 0.8543 euros)

(Reporting by Helen Reid, Inti Landauro and James Davey. Editing by Kirsten ‌Donovan)

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