All Legal & Institutional articles – Page 2
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Article
Alviero Martini under court administration amid supply chain labor exploitation charges
Alviero Martini has been placed under court administration by the Milan court, following a probe that found its supply chain relied on Chinese sweatshops that exploited workers to produce the Italian fashion house’s accessories and shoes. The probe was initiated by the public prosecutors Paolo Storari and Luisa Baima Bollone ...
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Minelli partially saved
The French footwear retailer Minelli is being acquired by three investors and avoids going into liquidation, the news agency AFP reported citing a decision by a Marseille-based commercial tribunal. However, the investors will only keep a third of Minelli’s employees and less than half its stores. The retailer, rebranded Maison ...
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News briefs
Russia is considering banning parallel imports of Western goods
The Russian government is considering banning parallel imports of a broad range of Western non-food goods. The restrictions could be similar to the Russian food embargo imposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2014, said the deputy Russian Industry and Trade Minister, Victor Evtukhov. The ban stopped the import of ...
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CEC welcomes EU comprise on ecodesign
The European Footwear Confederation (CEC) welcomed a compromise reached on Dec. 4 between the European Parliament and the European Council regarding proposed legislation on ecodesign for Sustainable Product Regulation launched by the European Commission on March 30, 2022. It also believes that the forthcoming legislation could relaunch leather as a ...
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EU to ban the destruction of unsold clothing and footwear
During the night of Dec. 4, the European Parliament and the European Council reached a provisional agreement, at a technical level, on revising the European Union’s ecodesign framework for sustainable products, the parliament said. The parties plan to introduce “ecodesign” rules for products, ban the destruction of unsold clothing and ...
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CEC elects Rosana Perán as president
The general assembly of the European Footwear Confederation (CEC) held on Dec. 1 in Elche, Spain, elected Rosana Perán, as its president for the next two years. She is the first woman to head CEC and succeeds Luis Onofre, president of the Portuguese footwear association, Apiccaps. Perán is president of ...
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News briefs
KG Schuhkay completes protective shield proceedings
The Hamburg-based footwear retailer KG Schuhkay has completed its protective shield proceedings. Schuhkay applied for self-administration under the German insolvency law in late March this year and entered protective shield proceedings at the end of May. Despite better-than-expected results, the business outlook was clouded by the fallout from the ...
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Austrian children’s shoe manufacturer Richter files for bankruptcy
The Austrian company Ferdinand Richter, the oldest children’s shoe manufacturer in Europe, has filed for bankruptcy with the Graz regional court. The company, which is based in Pasching, near Linz, with management in Graz, is however planning to continue operations, according to media reports. Ferdinand Richter has around €7.9 ...
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News briefs
Gerry Weber to be delisted
The German fashion group Gerry Weber is set to undergo a capital cut and to delist from the stock market as part of its restructuring plan, which was confirmed on Oct. 25 by the Essen Restructuring Court. The plan, which also includes a €50,000 capital increase, “was approved with ...
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News briefs
Ralf Ringer faces bankruptcy due to a dispute with the tax authorities
Ralf Ringer, a prominent Russian footwear retailer, faces the risk of being declared bankrupt for failing to pay the lease for a manufacturing facility. The company is locked into a dispute with the Russian tax authorities, which has blocked its bank accounts. As a result, the footwear retailer has missed ...
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News briefs
Christian Louboutin, Meta jointly sue an alleged Mexican counterfeiter
Christian Louboutin and Meta Platforms, which owns the social networks Instagram and Facebook, filed a joint lawsuit in the U.S. against a Cesar Octavio Guerrero Alejo, who allegedly sold counterfeit products from Mexico. According to the complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the ...
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News briefs
Skechers ready to “completely vindicate itself” against Nike lawsuit
Skechers has issued a response to the patent suit filed against it by Nike in a California-based federal court on Nov. 6, saying it will “vigorously defend” itself. Nike is suing Skechers for allegedly violating its Flyknit patents. Flyknit is a lightweight yarn woven into a one-piece shoe upper. A ...
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News briefs
Walmart and Vans settle trademark dispute
Walmart and Vans have settled a trademark lawsuit, under which Vans, which is owned by VF Corp. accused the U.S. retailer of copying the designs of its shoes, according to a filing with a Californian District Court. The trial was scheduled to start on Nov. 28. The companies said that ...
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News briefs
Bangladeshi textile minimum wage increased by over 56%
The minimum wage committee of Bangladesh has approved a 56.25 percent raise in the minimum monthly salary of the country’s four million textile sector workers, bringing it to 12,500 takas (about €104). Raisha Afroz, the secretary of the government-nominated committee, told the news agency AFP that the new minimum salary ...
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Prada’s footwear sales slow down sharply in Q3
In the first nine months of 2023, footwear sales for Prada Group in the retail channel rose by 16 percent year-over-year at constant currency rates to €556 million. Shoes represented 19 percent of the group’s retail sales. In the sole third quarter, footwear sales grew by 10 percent, half the ...
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German industry association fears new wave of insolvencies due to Covid aid repayments
Germany’s textile, shoes and leather goods trade association BTE warned of a new wave of insolvencies and closures, as fashion and footwear retailers continue to struggle with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic while possible repayments of pandemic state aid loom, adding to the already challenging conditions. According to ...
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News briefs
EU takes steps to block products made by forced labor
The European Parliament is proposing a new legislation framework to investigate the use of forced labor in companies’ supply chains. If it is proven that a company has used forced labor, all import and export of the related goods would be halted at the European Union (EU)’s borders. Companies would ...
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News briefs
EU clears Farfetch acquistion of YNAP stake from Richemont
The European Commission has unconditionally cleared the acquisition by the British online fashion retailer Farfetch of a 47.5 percent stake in Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) from the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont in exchange of Farfetch shares. The commission was the last regulatory hurdle required to obtain clearance for the deal, ...
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First Italian companies ready for ESG certification under trade association’s aegis
Out of the nine companies that have engaged into a self-assessment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performances under the aegis of Assocalzaturifici, the Italian footwear association, three are now ready to enter the certification phase. The audit phase, which will be carried out by ICEC, an independent certification institute ...
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Skechers wins EU-wide injuction against Dockers by Gerli
Skechers has obtained a European Union-wide preliminary injunction against Dockers by Gerli for selling a shoe style that the U.S. footwear company claims infringes on its proprietary Skechers Hands Free Slip-ins designs. Skechers sued Dockers for design infringement in the Düsseldorf Regional Court, Germany. In an October 5, 2023 opinion, ...