MILAN — More than a dozen companies are under scrutiny by the Milan prosecutors looking into the country’s fashion supply chain practices.
According to media reports, 13 firms have been asked to hand over documents on governance and supply-chain controls as part of investigations into alleged exploitative work conditions at fashion subcontractors.
The names involved include Prada, Versace, Gucci, Dolce&Gabbana, Ferragamo, Missoni, Givenchy Italia, Yves Saint Laurent Manifatture, Alexander McQueen Italia, Adidas Italy, Off-White Operating, Coccinelle and Pinko.
Compared to previous cases — which in the last two years saw the likes of Giorgio Armani Operations, an Italian subsidiary of Dior, Loro Piana and Tod’s Group placed under judicial administration procedures and investigated for allegedly using suppliers who subjected workers to poor conditions — these 13 companies are under preliminary probes and prosecutors haven’t sought court-appointed administration for any of them.
The request for documents is aimed at assessing the firms’ governance models and compliance with correct practices along their supply chains, encompassing working hours and health and safety measures, among others. The companies will be allowed to address possible issues and adjust their operations and organizational models on their own initiative.
The streak of cases uncovering illegal practices at several Chinese-owned firms in Italy producing luxury goods has increasingly tarnished the image of the local fashion industry.
Tod’s Group’s chairman and chief executive officer Diego Della Valle has been among the most vocal exponents in defending his company’s conduct and expressing criticism of the narrative that Made in Italy goods lack ethical controls. So much so he invited prosecutor Paolo Storari to visit the group’s plants, after Storari unearthed alleged labor abuses and poor working conditions at a handful of the company’s subcontractors in the Lombardy and Marche regions.
Industry associations, including Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and Confindustria Moda, have been equally vocal about the need for a shared, nationwide auditing system, with their representatives meeting also with the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso to discuss draft laws tackling both the influx of ultra-fast-fashion products and a system to safeguard the supply chain from unlawful practices.
On Thursday, Confindustria Moda and sister association Confindustria Accessori Moda released a joint statement again acknowledging the need to “resolutely fight all forms of illegality along the sector’s value chain” and the importance of “protecting workers’ dignity, legality, and transparency” in an industry so strategic for Made in Italy. But they also expressed “strong concern about the increasing sensationalism on media, which risks generating deep and unjustified damage to the image, and consequently to the economy, of the entire sector.”
“The public exposure of brands and companies in preliminary and inconclusive stages of investigations risks compromising the reputation of a sector that represents one of the pillars of the national economy, exports, and cultural identity of the country,” read the statement, underlining how this could “generate distrust among national and international consumers, investors and the entire supply chain” in an already fragile context.
