Boohoo fined €2.3m by French watchdog over deceptive discounts

Fashion site also broke rules on labelling by using terms ‘leather’ or ‘suede’ for synthetic products The British online fashion seller Boohoo has been fined €2.3m (£2m) by France’s consumer watchdog ⁠for deceptive ⁠practices ​such as offering fake discounts. The Manchester-based firm, whose parent company renamed itself Debenhams Group last year, was found to have exaggerated the discounts it was offering, giving shoppers a false impression ⁠of the savings they were making, ​according to the directorate-general for competition, ‌consumer affairs and ‌fraud control. Of ‌the promotions examined by the watchdog, 40% were found not to be real price reductions, 7% were a lower reduction than advertised, and 48% were a price ‌increase. Boohoo also used terms such as “leather” or “suede” to sell synthetic products, ​contravening French rules on product labelling, the regulator said. The fine comes four years after Boohoo reached a settlement in a $100m (£73m) US lawsuit that alleged the retailer used fake promotions to mislead shoppers. The settlement of the case, brought in California, was agreed “without admission of liability”, according t