Vienna, 30 March 2023 –Thirty-eight major apparel brands, including Hugo Boss, OVS and Marc Cain, have written to the European Commission to support the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Fur Free Europe which highlights the need for an EU-wide ban on fur farming and a ban on the import of farmed fur products into the European market.

The joint letter, written to Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides and Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, also sets out and supports the need to push through legislative measures to ban the trade and move to “alternative materials to animal fur using technological innovations in textile materials.”

It also highlights that reforms would “bring immense added value to achieve both the ethical and sustainability goals targeted by ourselves and intergovernmental organisations.”

Last month The Fur Free Europe ECI closed and garnered over 1.7m signatories from EU citizens. These signatures will now be validated and after this process the European Commission will then have to formulate and deliver a response that will address citizens’ demands for a Fur Free Europe.

Background

This adds to a growing list of brands who have committed to banning animal fur from their collections including Italian brands Dolce&Gabbana, Armani, Gucci, Prada, Moncler and global leader in online luxury fashion Yoox Net-a-Porter.

The ECI Fur Free Europe was officially registered by the European Commission on 16/03/2022 and ran from 18/05/2022 until 01/03/2023. The ECI was submitted by a group of citizens from 7 EU Member States. It aims to achieve an EU-wide ban on the keeping and killing of animals for the sole or main purpose of fur production, as well as placing farmed animal fur, and products containing such fur, on the EU market.

The European Union is one of the main regions for fur production globally. Every year millions of animals (mainly mink, foxes and raccoon dogs) are legally confined in small wire mesh cages and killed to produce unnecessary, easily replaceable fur articles. The mission is to end this cruel practice by introducing an EU-wide prohibition of fur farming.