H&M and Decathlon will adjust or withdraw certain sustainability claims on their garments and websites after the Dutch Consumers and Markets Authority (ACM) found in a report that the use of such claims was “unclear”.
The two retail chains have pledged to better inform consumers to minimize the risk of deceptive practices, the regulator said. As compensation, the two companies will also donate a total of 900,000 euros to various sustainable projects.
The regulator launched an investigation into sustainability claims in the apparel sector last year, paying particular attention to H&M and Decathlon. According to ACM, “unclear and insufficiently substantiated sustainability claims” were found at both Decathlon and H&M, among other retailers.
She found in her report that both retailers offered products under generic terms such as “Ecodesign” and “Conscious” without further elaborating on the sustainability benefits of this claim.
H&M and Decathlon want to adjust practices
During the investigation, both companies agreed to adjust their practices and make commitments to be enforced and reviewed by the ACM over a two-year period, and were therefore not sanctioned by the regulator.
“Consumers who want to make sustainable product choices need to be able to trust the truthfulness of the claims that companies make on their products or websites,” said Cateautje Hijmans van den Bergh, board member of ACM, in a release accompanying the report.
“We are pleased that these companies have acknowledged that they should have informed consumers more clearly about the sustainability aspects of their products and that they will adapt various sustainability claims and their justifications,” added van den Bergh.
“We have made the decision to remove the H&M Conscious Choice indicator from our online shop worldwide. This work is ongoing and will be completed by the end of October,” a spokeswoman for H&M confirmed to FashionUnited.
According to ACM, sustainability disclosures must be “accurate, clear and verifiable”. The supervisory authority uses five rules of thumb for this: Companies must make it clear which sustainability advantages a product has. Visual information and labels should be helpful and not confuse consumers. In addition, sustainability claims must be up-to-date and backed up with facts. Comparisons with other products, services or companies should be fair, and companies are also expected to report honestly and specifically about their sustainability efforts.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.