Boohoo faux fur jumper found to contain real fur

Online retailer Boohoo has been condemned by the Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA) for selling a faux fur pom pom jumper that was found to
contain real fur, which it states was “misleading” to consumers.

The UK advertising watchdog upheld complaints by Humane Society
International (HSI) UK, and ruled that the advert for the jumper on the
Boohoo’s website was misleading and in breach of advertising codes.

The authority’s ruling stated: “The ad must not appear again in the form
complained about. We told Boohoo.com UK Ltd not to state that products
included ‘faux fur’ if that was not the case.”

The animal charity found the jumper on Boohoo in September as part of
its ongoing investigations into the problem of real fur being sold as faux
across the UK. It then purchased the jumper and sent samples to an
independent textile analysis laboratory for testing, and found that the
item had been made of real fur, most likely rabbit.

In response to the ASA, Boohoo said that they had a “strong commitment
against the sale of real fur in any of their products” and added that it
had “robust policies and procedures to ensure that we are able to adhere to
this commitment”.

Boohoo added that the jumpers were obtained from an external UK-based
supplier, who were aware of Boohoo’s commitment against the sale of real
fur and had signed a supplier acknowledgement form committing to not
supplying products containing real fur.

Boohoo and Zacharia Jewellers get a rap from ASA for selling real fur
as faux

In addition to Boohoo, Zacharia Jewellers were also found to have broken
rules by selling a pompom headband on Amazon that was advertised as “faux
fur”. In response the jewellers said that they had been informed when they
bought the products in China that they were faux fur and that they were
“shocked to learn that they contained real fur” and had taken down the
listing from Amazon and removed the product from their website.

Advertising Standards Authority, director of complaints and
investigations, Miles Lockwood said in a statement: “Consumers should be
able to trust the ads they see and hear and they certainly shouldn’t be
misled into buying a faux fur product in good conscience only for it to
turn out to be from a real animal. That’s not just misleading it can also
be deeply upsetting.

“Our rulings serve as an important notice to retailers and the clothing
and textile industry about the need for truthfulness in their ad claims
around faux fur products, and to get their house in order or face further
action.”

Claire Bass, the executive director of HSI UK, added: “It’s completely
unacceptable that compassionate consumers setting out to buy fake fur are
being misled into buying animal fur. These two examples are the latest in a
long list of ‘fake faux fur’ items we’ve found for sale, so we hope that
the ASA’s rulings will send a strong message to the industry and make
retailers work harder to give consumers confidence in avoiding cruel animal
fur.”

Images: courtesy of ASA/Humane Society International