MILAN — Industry associations in Italy have been vocal for months: Made in Italy is besieged and action must be taken to safeguard the local supply chain and its reputation.
On Wednesday, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana’s president Carlo Capasa, Luca Sburlati, president of Confindustria Moda, and Matteo Lunelli, president of Altagamma, among other association heads, met with the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso in Rome to discuss draft laws tackling, on one side, the influx of ultra-fast-fashion products in the country and, on the other, a system to safeguard the supply chain from the infiltration of unlawful practices.
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Trade unions were not involved at this stage and expressed their frustration. A new fashion roundtable is summoned for Nov. 17.
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The Italian government is moving forward with a draft law, currently being reviewed by the Senate Committee, to curb the impact of low-cost imported products by resorting to the European Union’s EPR, or extended producer responsibility, directive. If passed, the country could impose an extra levy on such products connected with the manufacturers’ accountability terms for the end-of-life management of discarded products and textile waste. The same regulation will apply to local manufacturers.
“In the coming days, following today’s discussions with industry representatives, we will introduce a measure to address the phenomenon of ultra-fast fashion — an influx of low-cost foreign products that harms our manufacturers and puts consumers at risk,” Urso said in a note.
Speaking earlier this week at a summit in Rome organized by Camera Buyer Italia, Urso said that “issues are stemming from the ongoing war — and the broader trade war — in a world increasingly shaped by commercial retaliation measures.”
“The massive diversion of Chinese overproduction toward the European market — partly driven by U.S. protectionist policies — is through digital platforms that falsely present themselves as Made in Italy, offering products at extremely low prices in a time when consumers are particularly price-sensitive,” he said.
Industry associations hailed the move as a step forward in the country’s — and EU’s — defense against low-quality goods.
“Camera della Moda and Altagamma consider the influx of extremely low-quality, low-cost products flooding the market to be highly dangerous for both the Italian economy and Italian consumers. These products fail to meet — or even acknowledge — any of the standards and requirements of legality, transparency and traceability that Italian companies uphold.…Italian firms are deeply committed to ensuring the highest-quality standards, full transparency in production processes, and strict compliance with the principles of legality,” the associations’ presidents Capasa and Lunelli said in a joint statement.
For his part, Confindustria Moda’s Sburlati welcomed the ministry’s prompt response to the sector’s requests and touted the “swift implementation of protective measures in Italy” while urging the European Commission to do the same “quickly and decisively.”
“Equally important is the rapid approval of the EPR in Italy, which would make it mandatory also for non-EU producers, thereby enabling the recycling supply chain to truly take off,” Sburalti said.
In an interview with WWD on Thursday, Capasa elaborated, saying that “we cannot accept being flooded with ultra-fast-fashion products that show no respect for either people or the environment. We’re facing an unfair form of competition. We fight many rightful battles to address issues within our own borders, yet I never hear anyone talk about what lies behind these exploitative products. There should be less criticism of the high-end products’ value chain, which is doing everything it can to clean up itself. The elephant in the room are the millions of parcels arriving in Europe untaxed, flooding our markets.”
Capasa touted the steps France has taken, as reported, and urged Italy and the EU to follow in its footsteps.
“The ministry and his cabinet have been very clear that this is a fair and necessary battle. The goal is to reach an agreement to enact the EPR. If we apply certain standards, then those who produce outside Europe should do the same. At the very least, if we hold ourselves to these standards, they should also apply to the products we agree to import into Europe,” Capasa said.
The industry-government gathering on Wednesday also moved the conversation forward in relation to the supply chain scandals that have emerged over the past two years linking luxury brands such as Tod’s, Loro Piana, Valentino, Dior and Giorgio Armani, among others, to subcontractors involved in sweatshop schemes, labor abuse and exploitation.
None of the brands has faced criminal charges, but all of them — except Tod’s, which is awaiting a hearing in November — have been put under judicial administration to correct and enhance audits and oversight through court-mandated procedures. Dior’s and Giorgio Armani’s probes have been fully resolved and the judicial oversight lifted.
“Internationally, these cases have been interpreted as a reputational crisis for the entire industry,” Urso said at Wednesday’s Camera Buyer Italia summit.
A draft law outlining a certification system for the brands’ value chain has been passed by the Senate Committee, Urso said on the heels of the gathering. It establishes a voluntary certification for supply chain compliance, aimed at ensuring legality and traceability throughout the entire production process, across all tiers of subcontracting. Adopting companies meeting the organizational models for crime prevention and all compliance requirements will be entitled to use the designation “Certified Fashion Supply Chain,” under the supervision of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy and the Italian Competition Authority, AGC.
“It’s a serious issue — one we’re committed to resolving. The healthy part of the supply chain sees itself as wronged. The brands, within their respective capacities, and the supply chain as a whole are working together to find concrete solutions. We believe that a clear law providing for certification and allowing companies to comply with precise standards could be a key tool. It’s time to have a law that actually works,” Capasa told WWD.
“The high-end supply chain is very cohesive and considers itself a damaged party.…It is healthy, creative and efficient, though it does feature certain dissonances,” he said. “Inevitably, as fashion is Italy’s second-largest industry, it finds itself having to confront, within its ranks, a few limited cases [of unlawful practices] involving tier two or tier three [subcontracting] levels which end up linking with the high-end supply chain,” he said.
Touting the draft law submitted by the ministry, Capasa insisted certified companies should be legally reassured that “if we have complied with the shared rules…those same rules protect us from noncriminal liability in areas beyond our control. This would prevent arbitrary or uninformed measures from being taken. Once these rules are in place, we must not be subject to distorted or harmful interpretations that could damage our supply chain. The idea that our supply chain is ‘illegal’ is a narrative we cannot accept. It’s essential to restore legal certainty.”