The Zara France brand has been refused the extension of a store in Bordeaux due to an ongoing investigation into the possible use of forced labor of Uyghurs in China by Inditex, the parent company of the clothing brand, we learned Monday from elected members of an administrative commission.
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Zara France requested the doubling of the surface of its store located in the center of Bordeaux, rue Sainte-Catherine, to increase it from 1,098 m2 to 2,070 m2.
But on November 9, the departmental commercial development commission (CDAC) responsible for examining the request issued an "
unfavorable opinion
" to the project, with 3 votes against, 1 vote for and 6 abstentions.
Investigation in progress
The three members who vetoed - an assistant to the ecological mayor of Bordeaux, an elected ecologist from the Metropolis and a councilor from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region (PS-PCF-PRG), notably invoked the existence of an investigation judicial process underway on suspicion of the use of forced Uyghur labor in China by Inditex subcontractors. “
It is a political decision that we take. We wanted to give a strong signal by refusing the expansion of stores that do not sufficiently master their subcontractors,
”underlined the elected Alain Garnier, who represented the Metropolis on this committee.
The investigation, opened at the end of June by the “
Crimes against humanity
”
pole
of the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office, is based on a complaint lodged in April by the anti-corruption association Sherpa, the collective Ethics on the label, the Uyghur Institute of 'Europe (IODE) and a Uyghur who was interned in Xinjiang province (north-west). Based on a report published in March 2020 by the Australian NGO ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), the associations criticize Uniqlo France, Inditex (Zara, Bershka, Massimo Duti), SMCP (Sandro, Maje, de Fursac .. .) and the Skechers shoemaker to market products made in whole or in part in factories where Uyghurs are subjected to forced labor. "
With the impact of fast-fashion on the environment and the suspicions of forced labor by the Uyghurs, the Zara project seemed to us to contravene the criteria of sustainable development
”among those taken into consideration by the CDAC, according to the Code of commerce, justified Sandrine Jacotot, assistant to commerce at the town hall of Bordeaux.
See also Germany: companies accused of "profiting" from the forced labor of Uyghurs in China
According to the elected, "
it is now up to Zara to appeal this decision to the national commission for commercial development to explain how the company meets these criteria
".
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