EU Parliament Urges Stronger Enforcement Of Regulations Against Ultra Fast Fashion
The European Parliament has taken a long-awaited and decisive step by adopting a resolution urging stronger market surveillance, reinforced customs controls and faster enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in cases of non-compliance.
For Europe’s textile and clothing manufacturers, this marks the first political recognition that the current system is failing and that enforcement must finally rise to meet the scale of the problem.
This political breakthrough follows months of intense mobilisation led by EURATEX and its members. The campaign has included the Declaration against Ultra Fast-Fashion in Paris during Première Vision, a joint industry call for a fair and safe e-commerce environment, and a series of high-level meetings with European Commission officials alongside consumer groups, trade unions and retailers. As a result, awareness has surged across media, national governments and EU institutions.
Yet, even as the momentum builds up, new developments threaten to undermine this progress. National postal operators in several countries, including Poland, France and Italy, are entering partnerships with platforms such as Temu, aiming to speed up deliveries of the very parcels that currently bypass EU rules. These practices undermine compliant European businesses and expose consumers to unsafe products, effectively weakening the very protections designed to keep them safe.
Such moves run counter to the political direction set by the European Parliament and risk expanding the loopholes Europe is now trying to close. EURATEX warns that the EU is approaching a critical tipping point.
In the first half of 2025 alone, textile production dropped by 1.9% and clothing production by 5%. Employment is continuing its downward slide falling by 4–5% in textiles and 3% in clothing, while imports surged 7.7% for textiles and 12.3% for clothing. At the same time, European exports are declining. This is no longer a cyclical trend, it is a deepening structural threat.
Unless member states and EU institutions act urgently and coherently, Europe’s own standards risk becoming irrelevant and a vital industrial ecosystem may be irreversibly weakened. The solution is both clear and overdue, end the de minimis exemption, ensure that customs, VAT and safety rules apply to all products entering the EU and enforce the DSA swiftly and effectively to prevent foreign ultra-fast-fashion players from continuing to exploit regulatory gaps. The upcoming ECOFIN meeting on 12 December will be a key moment to advance these measures.
This message was also front and centre during EURATEX’s event in the European Parliament, hosted by MEPs Pierre Jouvet and François Kalfon. Speakers underscored the absence of a level playing field, the explosion of ultra-fast-fashion imports, the circulation of unsafe and non-compliant products and the loopholes, especially the de minimis exemption, that allow millions of parcels to enter the EU daily without proper customs or VAT controls.
