Confindustria: «Every day a million parcels arrive in our homes which do not pay duties or customs and often evade VAT». It’s the invasion of textile products at rock-bottom prices from platforms like Shein and Temu.
It is difficult to understand why, after having “given” the automotive industry to China, sacrificing historic and excellent brands on the altar of the ecological transition in the name of an accelerated and losing race towards electric on which Beijing has a monopoly, the Brussels bureaucrats have decided to also hand over the textile and fashion market to the Asian e-commerce giants. The large fast and ultra fast fashion platforms, after having revolutionized the sector with blows of rock-bottom prices and sophisticated marketing strategies, are now also making a scorched earth of Western values such as quality, artisan tradition and durability. An upheaval, an epochal cultural, as well as economic, attack, consumed in the indifference of the European institutions.
The seductive power of Shein, Temu & Co.
The seductive power of Shein And Temujust to name a few of the most popular ultra fast fashion platforms made in China, has become unstoppable. Even the Milanese “sciura”, all Prada and Vuitton, can’t resist the turtleneck from Uniqlo (another chain, but a Japanese one, in disposable fashion). At the beginning it was just Zara, H&M and Mango that made people feel trendy for a few tens of euros, then the Asian avalanche arrived. Items on Chinese platforms are offered at ridiculous prices: the average cost of a Shein piece is 14 euros compared to 28 for H&M and 35 for Zara. Temu it even destroys Shein with reductions from 10 to 40 percent.
Artificial intelligence, micro-lots and killer margins
But their strong point is not just the price. Shein uses Artificial Intelligence to anticipate trends and is able to produce items just three days after identifying a new trend. It also limits its orders to small batches of around 100 items to gauge customer interest, while its competitors, such as Zara, order larger quantities (around 500), with a greater risk of losing profit if sales then fall below estimates. This strategy has allowed the Chinese e-commerce giant to reach a valuation of over $100 billion.
Temu, the platform that makes Amazon tremble
Temu is even more aggressive. It ranges from clothing to small appliances and its explosion in popularity has even led the Economist to ask “how worried should Amazon be about Temu?”. To offer high discounts and fast shipping (super-fast deliveries), it has abolished intermediaries and works directly with manufacturers and suppliers. Furthermore, it is able to access millions of companies in China, often struggling with overproduction problems and therefore the need to get rid of the inventory they sell at rock-bottom prices. It has a sophisticated subliminal persuasion strategy that tricks consumers into buying items they don’t need. Then there is Zaful, focused on the very young and competing with the two giants. These platforms use social media with misleading advertising that attracts teenagers but also their parents.
The regulatory flaw that devastates the Italian industry
The impact force is also in the ability to exploit the slow reaction of the European institutions, exploiting legislative gaps to one’s advantage. «They don’t pay duties, customs and often not even VAT. Every day a million parcels arrive in our homes from China», is the alarm raised by the president of Confindustria moda, Luca Sburlati. The fashion supply chain, which in 2023 was worth around 104 billion, fell to 90 in 2024 and this year, says the manager, we will be around 80 billion.
The “Trojan horse”, to penetrate the Italian market and destroy it from within, are precisely the small parcels with a value of less than 150 euros for which the EU does not provide duties. Absurd but true.
A sector worth 5% of GDP under siege
It doesn’t take long to understand that Italian textiles and fashion, an ecosystem on which 5 percent of the country’s GDP is based, is under attack. As reported by the Confindustria association, in the first half of 2025 our exports fell by approximately 4 percent, while imports rose by 6, with China recording +18 percent.
A European Commission report on e-commerce adds some gems: in 2024, 4.6 billion items worth less than 150 euros were imported (in 2023 they were 2.3 billion and 1.4 billion in 2022). It means 12 million parcels a day and in this figure Temu and Shein account for the lion’s share. In 2023, Brussels seized around 150 million counterfeit items in the clothing and footwear sector, worth 3.5 billion euros.
This is why Sburlati calls for timely political intervention to secure a system that provides work, directly and indirectly, to over a million people.
Brussels knows, but does not act
The issue is on the European table, but so far, apart from a few sanctions, nothing structural has been done. There is work underway on an intervention on taxation, but it is progressing slowly. Ursula von der Leyen indicated the critical issues and the objective of introducing a contribution of 2 euros for each shipment to the EU, in addition to strengthening the rules on product safety. But the Brussels machine is moving slowly, giving Beijing another competitive advantage.
Even environmentalists warn: it is an ecological disaster
Yet even environmental organisations, to which the Commission is always sensitive, have raised the alarm about the harm of poor quality disposable fashion which feeds open-air landfills with difficult to recycle waste.
National reactions: Italy, France, Germany, Sweden
While waiting for a decision from the European institutions, the countries are moving in no particular order.
—In Italythe Ministry of Made in Italy has developed an amendment that imposes environmental obligations on these companies.
—In Francea tax has been introduced on every package of ultra fast fashion and misleading advertising on social media has been banned.
—In Germanythe Antitrust investigates Temu.
—In Italythe Guarantor Authority fined Shein.
—In Francefine of 40 million.
—In SwedenShein convicted of copyright infringement.
Untouchable multinationals, ridiculous sanctions
The sanctions have the same effect as a pin prick on the turnover of these multinationals and are truly ridiculous when compared to the real economic damage they create on the fashion supply chain and the dangers for consumers in contact with non-certified products.
Small Italian businesses pay the price
The impact of fast fashion made in China is felt above all on small and medium-sized businesses which represent the connective tissue of the fashion supply chain, where the cradle of craftsmanship is and where professionalism is greatest. According to the Filctem union, 3 thousand jobs have been lost in the province of Florence alone, where 48 percent of national production is located.
The mistake is to think that technological innovation can make up for artisanal intelligence. But a piece of Italian and European tradition is being lost.
Responsibility? Not of China, but of those who cannot defend the industry of the Old Continent.
