Boohoo fined €2.33m in France over fake discounts

Boohoo has been fined 2.33 million euros in France after regulators found deceptive trade practices including fake sale prices on the UK fast-fashion site.

France's anti-fraud and consumer watchdog, the DGCCRF, said Thursday that an inquiry found clothes and other items were often promoted as discounted when they were not, or were listed with misleading sale prices.

The agency said some ads described items as leather or suede even though they were 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 DGCCRF said.

Among hundreds of items checked, the watchdog said 40 percent were not actually on sale, seven percent had reduced prices that did not match the advertised discount, and 48 percent were more expensive than originally.

“In total 95 percent of the ads were not compliant,” the DGCCRF said.

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