Boohoo has been criticized by UK watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority, for flouting regulations. The ASA indicted the online retailer for marketing a pompom jumper as ‘faux’ when it was, in fact, real - most likely rabbit - fur.
Animal welfare charity, Human Society International, purchased the product and sent samples to an independent laboratory for testing. Like a headband by Amazon’s Zacharia Jewelers, which is also fingered in the ASA’s ruling for being sold as fake but is in fact real fur, the HSI confirmed the Boohoo jumper contained animal hair.
‘Consumers should be able to trust the ads they see and hear – and they certainly shouldn’t be misled into buying a faux fur product in good conscience only for it to turn out to be from a real animal,’ the Guardian reports Miles Lockwood, the ASA’s director of complaints, said.
‘That’s not just misleading; it can also be deeply upsetting. Our rulings serve as an important notice to retailers and the clothing and textile industry about the need for truthfulness in their claims around faux fur products, and to get their house in order or face further action.’
In response, Boohoo said, ‘We have a strong commitment against the sale of real fur in any of our products. We have robust policies and procedures in place to ensure that we are able to adhere to this.
‘Following the inquiry by HSI the item has been removed from sale. We continue to investigate the matter internally and with the supplier in question, as a matter of priority.’
Last year, the HSI investigated a high street wide problem of customers unwittingly being sold animal fur despite the products being advertised as synthetic. Amazon, Groupon and TK Maxx were all caught selling real fur. [Sky News](https://news.sky.com/story/real-animal-fur-sold-as-fake-on-british-high-street-10832370 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-retailers-selling-fur-faux-fox-rabbit-shoes-coat-amazon-groupon-boohoo-tk-maxx-a8121241.html) embarked on a similar inquiry and revealed House of Fraser and Missguided were also guilty of the same misstep.