In a request for information reviewed today by AFP, Paolo Storari, a Milan prosecutor, reported finding bags, wallets, or clothing from various brands during raids on Italian workshops employing “Chinese labor under severe exploitation conditions.”
The investigation concerns brands from the French group Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Alexander McQueen), Givenchy (LVMH group), as well as Prada and its new acquisition Versace, along with Ferragamo, Pinko, Dolce & Gabbana, Missoni, Off-White, leather goods manufacturer Coccinelle, and Adidas.
This represents the largest extension of a probe launched last year into the luxury sector, which uncovered violations concerning wages and working hours, safety failings, and unsanitary worker accommodations.
The Milan prosecutor requests that the brands, which remain considered innocent, promptly provide documents about their supply chains, such as internal audits.
Other major names have already been targeted by Italian justice in similar cases: Dior, the second-largest brand of LVMH, leather goods manufacturers Tod’s and Alviero Martini, Valentino Bags Lab, as well as an Armani subsidiary and Loro Piana (LVMH group).
All these companies, except Tod’s, have been placed under provisional judicial management to correct compliance issues and implement systems to prevent future abuses.
On Wednesday, a Milan judge granted Tod’s request for more time to complete the assessment of its supply chain controls, while prosecutors seek to impose a temporary advertising ban and appoint external administrators.
Luxury brands subcontract their production to suppliers, who in turn subcontract to others, in a context of increasingly tight margins and insufficient control over working conditions.
However, under Italian law, companies can be held accountable for violations committed by authorized suppliers.
The Italian government has taken action to defend its brands, with the Minister of Industry and “Made in Italy,” Adolfo Urso, declaring that their reputation was being “attacked.”
Tod’s, after denying any wrongdoing, was granted an 11-week period to strengthen its supplier control system on Wednesday.
However, anti-sweatshop activists argue that the luxury brands themselves impose prices too low on their subcontractors, leading them to subcontract second and third-tier suppliers where controls fail.
Deborah Lucchetti, Italian coordinator of the Clean Clothes campaign, described worker exploitation as a “structural phenomenon” in this sector.
“‘Made in Italy’ cannot be a platform to celebrate astronomical profits built on the denial of dignity for those who sew, assemble, and finish the products,” she stated in a press release today.
The prosecutor’s request for information follows inspections conducted in November on five suppliers used by various brands.
Between three and nineteen workers, mainly Chinese but also Pakistani, were working at each supplier and were cited in the court documents.
Some of the targeted brands are Italian subsidiaries of parent companies, such as Yves Saint Laurent Manifatture, Alexander McQueen Italy, and Givenchy Italy.
AJR // EA
Lusa/fim
