Reuters | Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) has announced a €1 million fine on Chinese fast fashion online retailer Shein for misleading customers on the environmental impact of its products.

The fine was imposed on Infinite Styles Services CO. Limited, a Dublin-based company that operates Shein’s website in Europe, at the end of a “greenwashing” investigation that the Italian watchdog had opened in September 2024.

AGCM said the environmental sustainability and social responsibility claims promoted on Shein’s website “were sometimes vague, generic, and/or overly emphatic, and in other cases omitted and misleading.”

The Italian authority said its assessment was influenced by an “increased duty of care” falling on Shein, “because it operates in (the) highly polluting sector and with highly polluting methods” of fast and super-fast fashion.

City authorities say Rome aims to solve its waste management issues within three years by spending around €1 billion on a new incinerator.

The capital struggles with 1.6 million tonnes of rubbish annually, forcing overflowing landfills and trash exports elsewhere in Italy.

At Santa Palomba, a planned plant will burn 600,000 tonnes yearly and generate enough energy for 200,000 homes. Work is set to start in early 2025, with completion by summer 2027.

The plant will recover 10,000 tonnes of steel, 2,000 tonnes of aluminium, and 1,600 tonnes of copper per year. Italy had 36 such plants in 2022, mainly in the centre-north.

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