H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz, LP, is one of the world’s largest retailers, specializing in clothing, including fast fashion. As more and more consumers seek to shop and live in ways that do less harm to the environment, H&M has begun making claims about the sustainability of certain lines of its clothing, including creating “Sustainability Profiles” for particular garments. But the complaint for this class action allege that the Sustainability Profiles engage is sustainability misrepresentation and that many of H&M’s sustainability claims are simply “greenwashing.”
The class for this action is all persons who bought the products at issue in New York.
On its website, H&M published Higg Sustainability Profiles (or, simply, Sustainability Profiles) for various products, which the complaint calls “environmental scorecards.” “However,” the complaint alleges, “the Sustainability Profiles contain falsified information that does not comport with the underlying data.” The purpose of the Sustainability Profiles, it says, was to claim that these products were better for the environment than other products.
In June 2022, the complaint claims, an investigation by Quartz showed that the Sustainability Profiles were false. As an eample, the complaint contains a screenshot from the H&M website that it claims “showed a particular product as being produced with 30% less water, but the Higg website showed that the item was ‘actually made with 31% more water, making it worse than conventional materials.’”
The complaint alleges that H&M did a similar switch with other items, presenting items that Higg showed as being made with a certain percent more water as being made with the same percent less. The complaint alleges, “This was a uniform practice for each and every Sustainability Profile scorecard.” After the Quarz investigation, the complaint alleges, H&M removed the Sustainability Profiles from its website.
According to the complaint, H&M has made other sustainability misrepresentations, including for its Conscious Collection, which it claims contain “at least 50% sustainable materials, such as organic cotton and recycled polyester.” But the complaint says this is not true, because H&M “includes Products that are comprised of indisputably unsustainable materials, like polyester” which “does not biodegrade, sheds toxic microfibers, and is not recyclable.”
H&M has instituted a recycling program, offering bins in its stores that the complaint alleges give customers the impression that the old clothing they bring in is turned into new clothing or otherwise kept from ending up in landfill. But the complaint says this is misleading: “Recycling solutions either do not exist or are not commercially available at scale for the vast majority of the Products.”
The complaint asserts, “The sheer volume of textiles produced by H&M, one of the world’s largest retailers, is unworkable. It would take H&M more than a decade to recycle what it sells in a matter of days.” Other allegations about H&M clothing and sustainability are also laid out in the complaint.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
H&M Clothing Sustainability Claims New York Complaint
July 22, 2022
H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz, LP, is one of the world’s largest retailers, specializing in clothing, including fast fashion. As more and more consumers seek to shop and live in ways that do less harm to the environment, H&M has begun making claims about the sustainability of certain lines of its clothing, including creating “Sustainability Profiles” for particular garments. But the complaint for this class action allege that the Sustainability Profiles engage is sustainability misrepresentation and that many of H&M’s sustainability claims are simply “greenwashing.”
H&M Clothing Sustainability Claims New York ComplaintCase Event History
H&M Clothing Sustainability Claims New York Complaint
July 22, 2022
H&M, or Hennes & Mauritz, LP, is one of the world’s largest retailers, specializing in clothing, including fast fashion. As more and more consumers seek to shop and live in ways that do less harm to the environment, H&M has begun making claims about the sustainability of certain lines of its clothing, including creating “Sustainability Profiles” for particular garments. But the complaint for this class action allege that the Sustainability Profiles engage is sustainability misrepresentation and that many of H&M’s sustainability claims are simply “greenwashing.”
H&M Clothing Sustainability Claims New York Complaint