France started charging a per-garment environmental fee on ultra-fast fashion Tuesday, targeting Shein and Temu over cheap clothing the government says undercuts French labels, fails safety rules, and turns quickly into textile waste. The fee runs from 0.25 euros on the smallest items to 12 euros on a coat, rising each year toward 19.50 euros by 2030, but never past half the garment’s pre-tax price. No other country has sized a penalty this way, by scoring how many styles a brand puts online and how easily its clothes can be repaired, which catches Shein and spares Zara and H&M. Shein’s IPO prospectus puts its output at about 4,700 new styles a day, while the European chains still sell in seasonal collections. China’s commerce ministry called the law a discriminatory trade barrier in July.
