France fines UK fashion site Boohoo over fake sales

French regulators said Thursday, August 20, that they had fined the UK fast-fashion site Boohoo €2.33 million after finding "deceptive trade practices" including fake sale prices.

An inquiry by France's anti-fraud and consumer watchdog DGCCRF found that clothes and other items were often promoted as discounts, when in fact they were not, or at misleading sale prices. Other ads described items as leather or suede that were actually made of synthetic materials. "The use of discounted pricing and permanent sales gave clients the impression they were getting very good deals, and were likely to influence their purchases," the fraud agency said.

It found that among the hundreds of items it checked, 40% in fact were not actually on sale, 7% had reduced prices that did not match the discount advertised, and 48% were actually more expensive than originally. "In total, 95% of the ads were not compliant," the DGCCRF said.

Online retailer Boohoo is part of Debenhams Group. In 2021, Boohoo bought the British department store brand out of bankruptcy and took on its name. Debenhams also now owns the brands Karen Millen, boohooMAN and PLT.