Infinite Towers Services Ltd [was Shein]

Is Shein ethical?

Shein performs poorly across the board – facing major criticisms over dangerous working hours at its factors, enormous carbon emissions and aggressive tax avoidance.

Below we outline some of these issues. To see the full detailed stories, and Shein overall ethical rating, please sign in or subscribe.

People

When it comes to workers manufacturing its clothing, Shein performs badly in terms of both policies and practices.

While Shein has a supply chain policy in place covering vital criteria like no child labour, it overlooks important factors like paying the living wage and limitating the number of hours employees are expected to work to under 48 a week. The policy only appears to apply to direct suppliers.

In August 2024, Shein acknowledged that it had found two cases of child labour in its supply chain during the previous year. Shein said that it temporarily suspended orders from the suppliers involved, resuming business with them once they had made efforts to tackle the issue.

It has also faced multiple allegations from civil society groups over abuses in its supply chains. For example, in November 2021, the investigative outlet Public Eye published a report called ‘Toiling away for Shein’, which alleged that workers in its supply chain in China were working 75 hour weeks – in violation of China’s laws as well as Shein’s code of conduct. In May 2024, a follow-up report by the group found that abuses were ongoing.

It accused the company of using a high-flexible workforce, including over 1,000 contractors to produce its extremely cheap garments – eroding conditions in the supply chain. Shein responded to the 2024 allegations, stating that long working hours in the sector were a "common challenge that brands, manufacturers, and other ecosystem players must work together to address".

Environment

Shein scored just 20/100 in Ethical Consumer’s climate rating.

In November 2023, Ethical Consumer’s looked at measures that Shein was taking to reduce its emissions. It found that the company only made vague statements and does not appear to have a target in line with vital international climate goals.

In January 2023, TIME magazine criticised Shein and stated, "the company leaves about 6.3 million tons of carbon dioxide a year in its trail—a number that falls well below the 45% target to reduce global carbon emissions by 2030, which the U.N. has said is necessary for fashion companies to implement to help limit global warming."

Animals

The company sells a range of animal products that are not covered by policies to prevent the worst welfare outcomes for the animals involved. For example, it sells products containing leather, wool, mohair, cashmere, and angora without relevant animal welfare policies in place.

In its overarching animal welfare policy, it states, “We prefer for our suppliers to source according to recognized third party standards” and lists a number of standards. It does not say how much of its supply chain is actually certified by any of the listed standards.

Politics and finance

Shein lacks transparency when it comes to financial ethics – failing to disclose its directors’ pay.

The company scores 0/100 for its tax conduct rating. Its owner is registered in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven, and Shein has also repeatedly been criticised by third parties for alleged tax avoidance.

The financial news site This Is Money stated in October 2021, “Chinese fashion giant Shein is exploiting tax perks to undercut Britain's online retailers”. 

And the clothing news site Fashion Network reported in July 2023, “A US parliamentary report has condemned Shein and Temu for exploiting a customs loophole to evade taxes and human rights controls”.

The text above was written June 2024, and most research was conducted in November and December 2023.