PARIS (Reuters) -France’s consumer protection authority said on Tuesday it had fined Debenhams-owned online fashion retailer PrettyLittleThing 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) for deceptive commercial practices.
The fine follows an investigation by the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) under France’s Economy Ministry that found PrettyLittleThing misled consumers about the discounts they could benefit from when shopping on the prettylittlething.fr website, the authority said.
Debenhams did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Debenhams has said it is exploring a potential sale of PrettyLittleThing, which suffered a 23% drop in annual revenue and reported an 84.1 million pound ($114 million) pretax loss in its latest financial year, ended February 28.
This is the second time in three months the competition authority has fined a fast-fashion company over fake discounts, having hit Shein with a 40 million euro fine in July.
($1 = 0.8477 euros)
($1 = 0.7394 pounds)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon. Additional reporting Helen Reid. Editing by Mark Potter)
