The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), part of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has issued an enforcement notice, which says if regulators continue to see problems in this area after 11 February 2019, they will sanction companies involved.
Retailers have been told to make sure they are not misleading customers by taking a firmer approach to checking the supply chain and the accuracy of claims relating to fur before putting the products on sale.
While laboratory testing was the most reliable method, the CAP said customers and retailers could also check items themselves using relatively straightforward methods.
Boohoo called out for selling ‘faux fur’ jumper with real fur
These include checking if the base is made from natural leather or a woven fabric, checking the tips of the hair – if it tapers as opposed to being blunt, it’s likely to be real - and burning some of the fur to see whether it singes, like real fur, or melts, like faux fur.
The CAP acknowledged that it can be difficult for online marketplaces, such as Ebay, to examine all products sold on the platform.
However, it does insist that platforms have a responsibility to ensure products sold on their platforms do not misleadingly present real fur as faux fur.
As such, it suggests platforms work with marketplace sellers to educate them on how to tell real fur from faux fur.
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