The Case for FTC Intervention in Fast Fashion’s Practices

• Pages: 78-98
• Date: 01 March 2026
• Published date: 01 March 2026
• Author: Ruchi B. Patel
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

56 EL R 1016 2 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER MAR/APR 2026

Author’s Note: The author would like to dedicate this Article

to all who listened to her talk endlessly about a paper she

was writing for her law review. She thanks her family and

friends. She especially thanks her mentors and professors

at Haub Law, Prof. Smita Narula, Prof. Josh Galperin, and

Dean Horace Anderson, for their guidance and detailed

feedback. She also thanks Emily Borich, Counsel at Foster

Garvey PC, for her time and discussions that inspired the

author’s recommendation of Federal Trade Commission

intervention, and the Pace Environmental Law Review’s Re -

search and Writing Editor, Patricia McKee, for her review

and feedback. She thanks everyone who took the time to

read and comment on the Article.

STITCHING UP CONSUMER

PROTECTION: THE CASE FOR

FTC INTERVENTION IN

FAST FASHION’S PRACTICES

by Ruchi B. Patel

Ruchi B. Patel is a 2025 cum laude graduate of Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

This Article explores the signif‌icant, detrimental implications of the intellectual propert y (IP), environmental,

and human rights harms created by fast fashion. Fast fashion takes advantage of gaps in U.S. copyright and

trademark law; is a leading contributor to waste, greenhouse gas es, and microplastic pollution; and allows for

continuation of human rights violations, including labor exploitation and unfair wages. The Article (1)exam-

ines the current U.S. legal landscape across IP, federal and state actions, and corporate self-governance to

highlight the gaps enabling these problems to persist; (2)offers a look into how environmental and human

rights harm is directly linked to consumer injur y in the United States by discussing specif‌ic detrimental impacts

at the national level; and (3)proposes that the Federal Trade Commission use its broad statutory authority to

regulate the unfair business practices of the fast fashion industry.

SUMMARYSUMMARY

A

meaningfu l part of the human experience is choos-

ing how we present ourselves to the rest of the world.

is can be done in various ways, such a s sharing

one’s personality, culture, or ideologies. It can also be done

through fashion, a funda mental form of self-expression,

albeit a potentially expensive one. Social groups and inter-

actions heavily inuence fashion, returning us to personal-

ity, culture, and ideologies. e experience and signicance

of fashion are cyclical.

Fashion propels the development of identity and

drives social progress.1 It is a way to express and advo-

1. Sarah B. Tkhayet, e Politics of Fashion: An Exploration of Clothing’s Com-

plex Role as the Fabric of Our Socio-Political Existence, Y G

cate for freedom—take, for insta nce, the use of fashion

in multi-wave feminism.2 Each wave of feminism utiliz ed

fashion to gain attention to its cause.3 However, fashion

can also be a source of sta gnation that “upholds and cre-

ates vehicles of oppression.”4 is is demonstrated by the

evolution of fashion into fast fashion. Now, fast fashion

has become a symbol of environmental degradation and

human rights v iolation s.

Discussing fast fa shion on an international scale is com-

plex.5 While a n international-level discussion of supply

chain issues would be helpful, it lends itself to branching

out too many times, creating a complicated web.6 A more

digestible discussion and ana lysis involves examining fa st

fashion through a national lens, in this instance from a

U.S. law and policy perspective.

(June 5, 2023), https://globalist.yale.edu/2022-2023-issues/the-politics-

of-fashion-an-exploration-of-clothings-complex-role-as-the-fabric-of-our-

socio-political-existence/; see also Vikas Shah, e Role of Fashion in Human

Culture, T E. (Oct. 19, 2023), https://thoughteconomics.com/

the-role-of-fashion-in-human-culture/.

2. See Tkhayet, supra note 1.

3. Id. (expressing the views of Prof. Jane Lynch of Yale University from

her course “In Ordinary Fashion,” providing the link between fashion

and politics).

4. Id.

5. See Alexa Maratos, e Fast Fashion Industry: Formulating the Future of En-

vironmental Change, 40 P E’ L. R. 391 (2023).

6. Id.

Copyright © 2026 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, https://www.eli.org

MAR/APR 2026 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 56 ELR 10163

is Article identies, examines, and analyzes U.S.

law and policy to highlight the underregulation of fash-

ion and fast fashion, which ultimately perpet uates harmful

practices that aect consumers. is examination informs

my conclusion that current U.S. legal authorities support

intervention by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to

more comprehensively mitigate the harms of fast fashion

through addressing consumer injury and promoting U.S.

consumer protection.

e Article is divided as follows. Part I provides an

overview of the emergence and a brief history of fashion,

and introduces the various problems associated with fa st

fashion, including intellectual propert y (IP), environmen-

tal, and human rights issues. Part II describes the current

fragmented approach to U.S. law and policy in the fashion

industry, revealing the gaps that allow fast fashion to con-

tinue harmful prac tices and highlighting the need for more

targeted regulat ion by the FTC. Part III provides a detailed

background on the FTC and its legal authority, explaining

that the Commission is empowered by the U.S. Congress

through the Federal Trade Commission Act7 (FTC Act) to

regulate “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or aect-

ing commerce ...” and to “seek monetary redress and other

relief for conduct injurious to consumers.”8 Part IV out-

lines the test the FTC uses to determine consumer injury

under §5 of the FTC Act,9 and how the harms produced by

the fast fashion industr y satisfy that test.

Part IV also recommends that the FTC can and should

use its §5 authority to regulate the fast fashion indus-

try and combat detrimental injury to U.S. consumers.

Given the broad scope of the authority granted the FTC

by statute, the Article arg ues for an additional regulatory

approach under unfair acts or practices, in addition to the

Commission’s focus on deceptive acts or practices relating

to false advertisement and greenwashing. As a result of

the FTC’s broad statutory authority, the A rticle proposes

that it directly seek monetary redress and relief for specic

consumer harm caused by unfair acts or practices done by

fast fashion companies, then shift to broader rulemaking,

specically tailored to large businesses in fast fa shion. Part

V concludes.

I. Fast Fashion: Conception,

History, and Consequences

A. Industrial Turn in the Fashion Industry

Fashion used to be a slower, infrequent, and intentional

process. Adding to one’s closet was a practical endeavor

“driven by seasonal cha nges and growing pains.”10 How-

ever, introducing an industrialized approach to producing

7. 15 U.S.C. §§41 et seq.

8. FTC, Federal Trade Commission Act, https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/

browse/statutes/federal-trade-commission-act (last visited Mar. 3, 2026).

9. 15 U.S.C. §45.

10. See Storm Birch, e History of Fast Fashion, O G (Aug. 31,

2023), https://oceangeneration.org/the-history-of-fast-fashion/.

garments via sweatshops was “the beginning of the end of

[the slow era].”11 In the 1960s, fashion companies started

catering to trends, causing textile mills to emerge across

developing nations.12 e allure of cheaper production and

greater prots began to overshadow the quality of the prod-

uct and the working conditions of those making the prod-

uct.13 is was the birt h of “low-quality, mass-produced”

clothing.14 Not long after, in 1989, the New York Times

coined the term fast fashion.15

Computers intro duced the option of online shopping ,

which was another force in increasing tex tile consump-

tion. Between 2000 and 2015, clothing production dou-

bled.16 e State of Fashion Report of 2019 a sserted the fast

fashion industry was e xperiencing an awakening among

consumer s.17 ey demanded more socially responsible

behavior from fashion retailers, including fa st fashion

companie s.18 However, sustainability eorts slowed with

the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.19 Shut-

down made consumers desire a safer and more convenient

way to shop.20

B. Intellectual Property, Social Media,

and Technology Exploitation

Besides cheap production and oshoring, the industry

has two other fou ndational pi llars: stolen IP21 and expan-

sive reliance on articial intelligence (AI)22 to track social

media in uencers and t rends.23 e designer dream sud-

denly became available to more socioeconomic groups as a

much cheaper copy. To keep prots hig h, the production

level relies on trendy demands from “a growing middle class

11. Id.

12. Id.

13. Id.

14. Id.

15. Id.; see also Anne-Marie Schiro, Fashion; Two New Stores at Cruise

Fashion’s Fast Lane, N.Y. T (Dec. 31, 1989), https://www.nytimes.

com/1989/12/31/style/fashion-two-new-stores-that-cruise-fashion-s-fast-

lane.html (referencing the current fast fashion giant, Zara, one of the lead-

ing creators and contributors of the fast fashion industry).

16. See Katie Curtis-Smith, e Impact of Fashion on People and Planet: What We

Purchase, O G (Aug. 25, 2023), https://oceangeneration.

org/impact-of-fashion/ (units sold went from 50 billion to 100 billion by

2015).

17. See Harsh Gautam, Introduction of COVID-19 to Fast Fashion, I

I. A  D (Mar. 2, 2022), https://www.iiad.edu.in/the-circle/

introduction-of-covid-19-to-fast-fashion/.

18. Id.

19. Id.

20. See Angela Covalli, e Impact of Online Shopping Trends and the Rise of

Fast Fashion, M (Sept. 22, 2023), https://medium.com/@asco

valli/the-impact-of-online-shopping-trends-and-the-rise-of-fast-fashion-

5036bc71a74d.

21. IP is an integral part of the fast fashion problem because larger companies

can take advantage of the gaps in IP and mass produce designs without it

being illegal. Part II will thoroughly detail the lack of U.S. law and policy in

IP, particularly in copyright and trademark, demonstrating that U.S. IP law

has not kept pace with the fast fashion industry.

22. See eus, infra note 42, at 634.

23. See Abigail M.M. McCann, Social Media: One of Fast Fashion’s Biggest In-

uencers, 2 S J. I. P. L. 70, 81 (2024); see also eus, infra

note 42.

Copyright © 2026 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, DC. Reprinted with permission from ELR®, https://www.eli.org