Boohoo warned by UK advertising watchdog after ‘faux fur’ jumper found to contain real animal hair
Online fashion retailer Boohoo has been warned after advertising a jumper as “faux fur” despite it containing real animal hair, the UK advertising watchdog has said.
A complaint about a “faux fur” pom pom jumper sold by Boohoo was upheld by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) after it was found it contained real fur, which Humane Society International (HSI) said was likely to have come from a rabbit.
A sample of the jumper was bought by HSI, which commissioned a test report “from an independent textiles analysis expert, which was provided to the ASA”.
The ASA said: “The results reported that the ‘faux fur’ from the sample was real animal fur, most likely rabbit.”
It ruled the advert was “misleading” and “must not appear again in the form complained about”.
Boohoo removed the advert after the complaint was received and also stopped placing orders with the suppliers who gave them the jumpers, the BBC reports.
A spokesman for ASA added: “We acknowledged that Boohoo had removed the product from sale following receipt of the complaint.
“We also acknowledged that they had quality control procedures in place to identify real animal fur, though we understood they did not retain detailed reports on the tested stock other than to say that it had passed those tests.
“Boohoo’s records showed that a sample of fur from the product in question had passed internal tests.
"However, given that we had seen evidence that the product obtained by Humane Society International contained real animal fur, we concluded that the ad was misleading and breached the Code."
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In a statement to the BBC, Boohoo said the company has a “strong commitment against the sale of real fur in any of our products” and they have “robust policies and procedures in place”.
It also said it had received the jumpers from a supplier who was “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 has a team of in-house quality assurance experts who are responsible for testing and checking of products to ensure instances such as this don’t occur,” the statement said.
"The product in question was checked for real fur using our own 'approved' tests and procedures by our in-house quality assurance team. The results of the testing showed that real fur was NOT present in the product.
"Following the enquiry made by the Humane Society the item has been removed from sale. We uphold our commitment against the sale of real fur in any of our products and continue to investigate the matter internally and with the supplier in question, and we do so as a matter of priority."
