Online fashion retailer has listings banned over inaccurate ‘faux fur’ claims

One item of clothing contained racoon dog fur, reports Matt Mathers

(Getty Images)

An online fashion retailer has had a number of product listings banned from its website after an item marked as containing only “faux” fur was found to be made with real fur.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered Just Your Outfit to remove listings seen on its website in February advertising “faux fur” trimmed sliders, a shoulder bag and a denim jacket.

It came following an investigation by the Humane Society International (HSI). The animal welfare charity bought a “faux fur” beanie hat from the site and found the item’s label stated it contained marmot fur.

The HSI tested the product and said that it actually contained raccoon dog fur and later complained to the HSI.

The ASA said: “We therefore contacted Just Your Outfit to challenge the ‘faux fur’ claim that appeared in their listing for the beanie hat as well as the three listings, which we randomly selected.

“As part of that work we asked them to check the labels for those products and to send images of those labels, and explain what steps they had taken to test the products to ensure that they did not contain animal fur.”

Just Your Outfit advised the ASA they had removed the listing for the beanie hat because it contained marmot fur.

But the firm did not provide any supporting evidence to show that the three products chosen by the regulator contained exclusively faux fur.

As a result, the ASA ordered Just Your Outfit to remove those listings from its website. “Because we had asked Just Your Outfit to provide evidence to substantiate their faux fur claims, and they did not provide it, we concluded that the ad was misleading and breached the code,” the agency said.

The ASA ruled that the product listings must not appear again, adding: “We told Just Your Outfit not to make ‘faux fur’ claims in their advertising if they did not hold evidence to demonstrate that their products contained exclusively faux fur with no real animal fur.”

The Independent contacted Just Your Outfit for comment.

The HSI welcomed the ASA’s decision and called on the government to ban the sale of fur throughout the UK.

Claire Bass, executive director for Humane Society International/UK told The Independent: “We are pleased to see that the ASA continues to challenge retailers on advertising real fur as fake fur.

"Annually, the fur trade subjects over 100 million animals globally to pitiful lives of suffering and distress. There is nothing fashionable about an animal suffering in a tiny wire cage simply to accessorise a hat.

“The only way to completely avoid real animal fur from sneaking into our British stores is for the UK government to ban the sale of fur throughout the UK.”