How ethical is Boohoo?
Multiple ethical issues are highlighted in our research of Boohoo, including inadequate animal welfare policies, allegations that workers in its UK supply chains have been underpaid, marketing of real feathers as faux, and criticisms that the company is failing to curb its major climate harms.
Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Boohoo’s overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.
Which brands does Boohoo own?
In addition to the Boohoo brand itself, the following brands are all also owned by the Boohoo group:
- Burton
- Coast
- Debenhams
- Dorothy Perkins
- Maine New England
- MissPap
- Nasty Gal
- Oasis
- Pretty Little Thing
- Wallis
- Warehouse
People
Boohoo has a poor track record when it comes to protecting the rights of workers in its supply chains.
In 2022, the Guardian reported that activists had questioned Boohoo over its alleged failure to pay living wages to garment workers at its factories in Leicester. The revolt “came after activists said workers in factories in Leicester that supply Boohoo could be owed as much as £125m in underpaid wages” while its “chief executive, John Lyttle, was paid almost £1.4m last year after he was awarded a generous bonus despite missing targets”, the article said.
A Boohoo group spokesperson told the Guardian: “We strongly reject any inference that people in our supply chain are paid less than the national minimum wage, and we do not recognise the [historic] figures quoted by Labour Behind the Label referencing the shortfall in pay. When we have requested evidence from Labour Behind the Label [the group behind the allegations] to substantiate these claims, they have failed to provide it.”
Workers’ rights groups have also accused Boohoo of exacerbating conditions in its supply chains through its quick and cheap purchasing and sales model. In 2021, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Labour Behind the Label and ShareAction published a statement condemning Boohoo’s slow progress on addressing labour abuse in its supply chain. They said that they had found “little evidence” Boohoo had addressed problems in its buying practices that caused poor labour practice. Namely, the company’s insistence on paying supplies low prices that drive illegally low wages.
“Boohoo and enforcement agencies are trying to place the blame solely on exploitative suppliers, thus ignoring the central role Boohoo and similar brands play in generating and continuing the root causes of labour abuses and exploitation”, they said.
Boohoo responded that it was an “absolute failure” of the three rights groups not to recognise any of the “substantial action” taken by the group and its partners.
However, in November 2023, BBC Panorama also found that the brand had “broken promises to make its clothes fairly and ethically”, after it pledged in 2020 to overhaul its practices. An undercover reporter for the BBC found that the company was driving suppliers to offer lower and lower prices, despite multiple reports that the practice was undercutting wages and workers’ rights.
In addition, Ethical Consumer’s research suggests that the company has taken inadequate steps to address risks of forced labour in its supply chains. Human rights organisations have urged fashion companies to ban cotton from Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, where state-sanctioned forced labour is a major issue in the cotton industry. However, no evidence was found that Boohoo avoided sourcing from these regions.
Environment
Boohoo scores 0/100 in Ethical Consumer’s climate rating.
The company was found to provide inadequate information on its steps to reduce emissions, for example, only making vague statements that it was “Exploring opportunities to increase use of recycled cotton” and “Exploring opportunities for technology advances in fibre-to-fibre recycling".
While the company reported on some of its emissions in its 2023 annual report, this did not appear to be comprehensive, and its targets had not yet been approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative – the leading standards body ensuring that corporate targets align with internationally agreed climate goals.
In 2023, Boohoo was also criticised by environmental advocacy group Stand.earth, which stated: "Boohoo is lagging far behind its competitors in the fast fashion sector in terms of progressing with an energy transition in the supply chain, engaging in renewable energy advocacy, and use of low-carbon materials. Worse, it reported a significant emission increase in both the purchased goods and services category and the upstream transportation and distribution category from 2019 to 2021.” It urged Boohoo to “start taking its negative climate impacts seriously”.
Animals
Boohoo and its brands sell animal products including wool, cashmere, feathers, and alpaca.
The company has a number of policies banning worst practices, such as use of real fur or angora, no exotic animal skills and no use of mulesing – a painful practice whereby sections of flesh are cut from wool sheep’s skin to avoid infection.
It also has targets to source wool and cashmere, and feathers and down from more responsible sources by 2025. While this is a positive step, it shows that the company is not currently sourcing these products to higher welfare standards.
In 2023, an investigation by ethical fashion advocacy group Collective Fashion Justice and animal welfare organisation World Animal Protection found that Boohoo, along with a number of other retailers, had falsely labelled real feathers as ‘faux’ on some products. Boohoo said that it had removed the products identified in the investigation from its website.
Politics and finance
Boohoo performs poorly on financial ethics.
The ultimate parent company for the group is registered in Jersey, a tax haven, despite its primary operations being based in Manchester and the rest of mainland UK. The company therefore received 0/100 for tax conduct, under Ethical Consumer’s rating.
In 2022/23, the company’s CEO John Lyttle received £1,348,498 – a level of payment that Ethical Consumer considered to be excessive.
Its turnover was £1.77 billion in 2023.
The above text was written in July 2024, and was based on research largely conducted in November and December 2023.
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Ethical Consumer Best Buy: No
Boycotts: No