France Targets Ultra-Fast Fashion with New EPR Penalties as EU Textile Rules Expand

Key Takeaways:

• What Happened: France enacted Law No. 2026-602 in July 2026 to address the environmental impacts of “ultra-fast fashion.” An implementing order effective September 1, 2026, now imposes increased extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees on specified apparel products based on the breadth of a producer’s product range and its incentives to repair products.
• What Else Does the Law Require: The law also requires manufacturing-location disclosures for covered textile products sold online and, beginning January 1, 2027, will prohibit certain advertising and influencer promotion of products and brands that fall within the law’s definition of ultra-fast fashion.
• Why It Matters Beyond France: The final EU Waste Framework Directive (WFD) allows Member States to modulate textile EPR fees to address fast- and ultra-fast-fashion practices. In June 2026, France and four other Member States urged the European Commission to establish a coordinated EU approach, including harmonized criteria for heightened EPR fees, and specifically pointed to the French model. In other words, Member States have the tools to follow France’s lead—either through national measures or through a coordinated EU-wide approach.
• What Companies Should Do: Apparel companies operating in the French market should evaluate whether their product assortment and repair programs could trigger the new fees, review online manufacturing-location disclosures, and prepare for the advertising restrictions taking effect in 2027. Companies operating more broadly in Europe should also monitor Member State implementation of the EU’s mandatory textile EPR requirements. Companies focused on the U.S. market should continue to track California’s implementation of its textile EPR program and similar efforts in other states, while also tracking developments in the EU as a possible preview of future regulation in other jurisdictions.

France Adds Ultra-Fast Fashion to Its Textile EPR Program

France has operated an EPR program for clothing textiles, household linens, and footwear since 2009. On July 8, 2026, France enacted Law No. 2026-602, which adds the concept of “mode ultra-express,” or “ultra-fast fashion,” to the French Environmental Code and links it to the existing textile EPR program.

The law defines ultra-fast fashion based on commercial practices involving a high number of new product references and limited repair incentives, including specified online marketplace activity. France uses those factors to calculate an EPR penalty for specified apparel products. Covered products receive a durability score based on the breadth of the producer’s product range and its repair incentives, and products scoring 0.8 or lower are subject to a per-item fee. The amount varies by product category and increases over time. For example, the penalty for jeans is €9 in 2026 and 2027 and rises to €17.25 beginning in 2030, while the penalty for a coat or jacket rises from €12 to €19.50.

France is the first country to implement such a mechanism, which differs from traditional EPR by tying producer fees not only to products placed on the market but also to commercial practices associated with product longevity and waste generation.

The Law Reaches Beyond EPR Fees

In addition to imposing EPR fees, Law No. 2026-602 requires online retailers of covered textile products to display manufacturing locations clearly and legibly near the product price and in the same font size. Beginning January 1, 2027, France will prohibit advertising and both direct and indirect promotion of (1) products that qualify as ultra-fast fashion and (2) the brands producing them, subject to statutory limitations. The law separately prohibits online influencers from directly or indirectly promoting covered products or brands. Violators face administrative penalties of up to €100,000.

Some implementation details remain to be specified by decree, including thresholds used to determine the number of new product references and what constitutes a low incentive to repair for purposes of the statutory ultra-fast-fashion definition. Companies potentially affected by the advertising and online platform provisions should therefore continue monitoring implementing measures, in addition to the EPR fee already in effect.

France May Preview How Member States Implement the EU Textile EPR Mandate

France’s approach is emerging alongside an EU-wide EPR requirement. As B&D previously discussed, the 2025 amendments to the WFD require Member States to establish EPR schemes for textile, textile-related, and footwear products by April 17, 2028.

Member States are already advancing national schemes ahead of the EU deadline. On July 23, 2026, Italy’s State-Regions-Local Authorities Unified Conference issued a favorable opinion on a draft EPR regulation covering clothing, footwear, accessories, and leather goods. The proposal would place responsibility on entities that first put covered products on the Italian market and would use producer contributions to encourage more durable and repairable products. The regulation is not yet final, and key details of the contribution structure and other compliance requirements remain to be confirmed.

France’s approach shows how Member States may go beyond the basic EPR framework WFD requires. The final WFD expressly permits Member States, where appropriate, to require EPR organizations to modulate producer contributions to address fast- and ultra-fast-fashion practices based on factors related to product lifespan, useful life beyond the first user, and closing the loop by turning textile waste into raw material for new products. In its EU notification for the implementing order, France cited recital 40 of the WFD as the basis for the criteria it selected in defining ultra-fast fashion: product range and repair incentives.

France is not alone in seeking additional measures targeting ultra-fast fashion. In June 2026, Germany, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Slovenia submitted a joint note to the EU Environment Council calling for a coordinated EU approach. The Member States asked the Commission to develop EU-wide criteria for identifying ultra-fast-fashion business models and harmonized criteria that would enable Member States to impose enhanced EPR fee modulation, noting that the approach reflected in the WFD had already been tested and would be deployed in France.

Although the countries’ joint submission does not create new EU requirements, it may indicate how textile EPR will develop as Member States establish their mandatory programs. The French scheme may therefore offer an early example of how Member States could use the flexibility provided by the revised WFD to address not only textile waste at end of life, but also commercial practices thought to drive waste generation.

Related U.S. Textile EPR Updates

As discussed in B&D’s March 2026 alert, California Textile EPR is also moving from legislation toward implementation in the United States. As a further update, CalRecycle has begun developing regulations and expects to adopt and implement them by July 2028.

Other states continue to consider textile EPR legislation, although California remains the only state to enact a statewide program. In New York, parallel Senate and Assembly textile EPR bills were amended twice in the spring but did not advance beyond committee before the 2025–2026 legislative term ended. Washington lawmakers also considered textile EPR legislation in 2026, including a measure that evolved into a needs-assessment bill to inform a future program, but Washington did not enact an EPR measure. Minnesota’s proposed textile EPR legislation also did not advance before the close of the 2025–2026 legislative session. Its proposal is notable because it would require producers of textiles and certain other products to fully fund a stewardship program through “eco-modulated” fees. The state would calculate these fees would based on products’ environmental characteristics and would intend to incentivize design choices that facilitate reuse, repair, and recycling. The proposed fee methodology would also account for Minnesota sales volumes; producers’ existing collection, repair, reuse, and recycling programs; and the costs of managing covered products.

These U.S. state efforts do not mirror France’s new ultra-fast-fashion penalty. California’s program is designed only to ensure covered products are collected, repaired, reused, and recycled. France’s law goes further by tying EPR fees to commercial practices and product design to penalize disfavored approaches. But Minnesota’s proposal shows that eco-modulation is also emerging in U.S. textile EPR policy discussions as a tool for influencing producer behavior, even though its proposed criteria differ from France’s. Both France’s approach and Minnesota’s proposal illustrate how textile EPR can extend beyond financing end-of-life management by using differentiated producer fees to encourage longer product life, repair, reuse, and other circularity goals.

While companies that sell solely to U.S. markets will understandably focus on California-related textile EPR developments, Minnesota’s consideration of fee modulation shows that France’s approach is also worth tracking as a potential indicator of how textile EPR requirements could evolve in the US. 

Next Steps

Apparel and textile companies selling products in France should assess the potential application of the new EPR fee to their products, review online disclosures of manufacturing locations, and prepare for the advertising and influencer restrictions scheduled for January 1, 2027. Companies selling throughout Europe should also track Member State implementation of the revised WFD, including whether other jurisdictions adopt fee-modulation approaches targeting fast- or ultra-fast-fashion practices.

Beveridge & Diamond’s Consumer Products and Product Stewardship, Global Supply Chains practices counsel U.S. and multinational companies that manufacture, distribute, transport, or sell consumer goods in today’s fast-paced and evolving marketplace, including EPR. Our Apparel and Textiles practice supports companies in the textiles and fashion sectors with a broad range of global environmental and sustainability challenges. For more information, please contact the authors.