Skip to main content
BoF Logo

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Shein Reveals Child Labour Cases as It Steps Up Supplier Audits

The company said both cases had been “resolved swiftly,” with remediation steps including ending underage employees’ contracts, arranging medical checkups, and facilitating repatriation to parents or guardians as necessary.
A woman on a beach holds up a phone with the Shein app open.
Shein tightened its supplier policy last October after the child labour cases were found. (Shutterstock)

Fast fashion retailer Shein found two cases of child labour at its suppliers last year, it said in its 2023 sustainability report, as it stepped up audits of manufacturers in China to assuage criticisms of its low-cost business model ahead of a planned flotation.

Please sign in to ensure you can read our agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice. Or get in touch at support@businessoffashion.com if you experience difficulties.

Further Reading

Shein Is on a Pre-IPO Charm Offensive

The controversial e-commerce giant is on a charm offensive as it seeks to manage regulation that takes aim at fast fashion and drum up support for a possible London listing.

© 2026 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from Sustainability
How fashion can do better for people and the planet.

The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.


How Mexico’s Independent Women Fashion Designers Are Rethinking Growth

At Soho House Mexico City, Mexican fashion designers Carla Fernández, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Camila Banzo joined BoF’s Yasmine Dahlberg to speak candidly about identity, innovation and what it takes to build an independent fashion business in Mexico — as part of both Women’s History Month and the House’s ongoing Women Shaping the Future initiative.


view more
Latest News & Analysis
Unrivalled, world class journalism across fashion, luxury and beauty industries.

The Industry That Eats Its Young

Small fashion labels have always been shortchanged by their wholesale partners. A wave of high-profile bankruptcies has turned a structural injustice into an existential crisis. There is a better way to do business, writes Imran Amed.


The Zara-Fication of John Galliano

Fashion’s enfant terrible is trading exclusivity for the mass market. Is it the ultimate fashion coup, or the final surrender of prestige?


The Impact of War on Fashion’s Supply Chain

Textile hubs are already feeling the cascading risks of the conflict in Iran as Washington ramps up forced labour probes to revive tariffs, while decarbonisation in fashion’s factories might finally have a standard to go off of.


VIEW MORE
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON