H&M is being hit with another class action lawsuit over claims its Conscious Choice clothing collection amounts to greenwashing.
A lawsuit, filed in a Missouri federal court, is suing the retailer for “misleadingly, illegally, and deceptively” seeking to capitalise on green trends.
The Conscious Choice products “make it more visible which products are made with a higher percentage of materials that have less impact on the environment,” according to the Swedish clothing retailer’s website.
Each product contains at least 50% of more sustainable products, such as organic cotton or recycled polyester, H&M said, and is identified in-store with a green price tag.
Plaintiffs in the case allege that they have been “hoodwinked” into paying a premium for the supposed green products when they aren’t green at all.
This, according to The Fashion Law website, is significant to the filing “as it is at the heart of the plaintiff’s ability to show that they have suffered the necessary injury to have standing to sue.”
The H&M lawsuit comes as UK fashion retailers Asos, boohoo and Asda’s George are currently under investigation by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over similar green claims.
The CMA said its concerns include "statements and language used by the businesses are too broad and vague" and so could potentially mislead customers into thinking clothing ranges are more environmentally sustainable than they are.
It is also looking into whether the criteria for what is considered green are too low and whether items are included in the 'green' collections that do not meet the criteria.
Green pledges fall under the umbrella environmental, social and governance (ESG) umbrella term, where policies have been widely adopted by firms looking to implement ‘better’ business practices, although whether fashion companies improve their ethical policies seems to have little impact on consumer demand and a former Blackrock fund manager has also questioned whether money should be shifted towards companies with a bad ESG rating in order to try and enforce change.
Terrance Keely, who worked at Blackrock for over 10 years, said in a new book that the current system is broken and that focusing on the poorly rated ESG companies would see increased engagement and actually enforce change.