Dior will allocate 2 million euros against exploitation. Agcm closes inquiry
The investigation that the Competition and Market Authority had opened in July 2024 closes without a finding of wrongdoing but with this 'pact'.
3' min read
3' min read
Changes to the ethical and social responsibility declarations, new procedures to select and monitor suppliers and to carry out more internal audits, but above all the commitment to allocate two million euro over five years to specific initiatives - also open to other fashion brands producing in Italy - to identify victims of labour exploitation and accompany them in dedicated paths of protection, training, assistance and social and labour inclusion.
The investigation that the Italian Competition and Market Authority (Agcm, also known as the Antitrust Authority) had opened in July 2024 against Christian Dior Couture S.A., Christian Dior Italia S.r.l. and Manufactures Dior S.r.l., which are part of the French luxury goods group LVMH but produce in Italy, is closed without a finding of wrongdoing but with this "pact".
The investigation had been initiated under the Consumer Code in view of the dissemination of potentially untruthful ethical and social responsibility statements, in particular regarding working conditions and compliance with legality at some suppliers of leather goods.
The Milan Public Prosecutor's Office investigation
.In June 2024, the company Manufactures Dior was put into receivership by the Court of Milan because it was indirectly involved, according to the investigations of the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office and the Carabinieri, in a series of episodes of exploitation of workers in Chinese factories (subcontractors of the Dior companies). Manufactures Dior was accused of having contracted out the production of handbags and travel items to a company with an obvious production incapacity, which in turn had entrusted the orders to 'Chinese factories, which manage to cut costs by resorting to the use of illegal and clandestine labour in exploitative conditions'.
The Milanese court itself, at the end of February 2025, had, however, revoked the measure: judges Pendino, Cucciniello and Profeta at the time had acknowledged the company's having 'initiated a considerable planning, economic and cultural effort to position itself in the fashion industry as a company with a high degree of ethical connotation and social responsibility'. In concrete terms, Manufactures Dior has introduced 17 new professional figures who are exclusively responsible for 'tightening the controls' on the 'production chain' and the 'termination' of contracts with critical 'suppliers'.
