What: Legislative action is picking up around brands and retailers falsely advertising products as sustainable.

Why it is important: The new legal action and legislation increasing around the world advocating for transparency and validity in sustainability claims, are a serious wake-up for retailers and brands to carefully navigate their behaviour and communication.

H&M has recently been hit with a class-action lawsuit filed in New York earlier this month regarding their sustainability claims. The suit focuses on the ‘Conscious Collection’ and the misleading imagery and communication the company makes regarding recycling. H&M’s claim to recycle clothing by collecting used clothes has been addressed as misleading customers when the technology either does not exist or does not reach the scale or pace of H&M’s production.

The H&M lawsuit as well as the UK’s investigation into environmental claims made by fast fashion brands are seen as a door opening for other similar legal action to be taken. Aside from any financial outcome from potential legal battles, brands and retailers are already facing a PR storm and deteriorating public perceptions.

Other initiatives that seek to eliminate buzzwords at the product level are seen as an important step but keep customers responsible for their choices, not retailers. The recent legislation is likely to affect marketing primarily; it is unclear if it will address production policies.

Speculators foresee increased, stricter regulations but customer shopping behaviour is not expected to change until legislation attacks the supply chain directly.

Lawsuits amid fashion greenwashing crackdowns