THE Italian Competition Commission launched an investigation against the luxury goods house Giorgio Armani as well as Dior Italia, which are burdened with suspicions that they have not been particularly scrupulous about the working conditions of their subcontractors.

Investigations were carried out yesterday with the assistance of the special unit for the protection of competition, at the headquarters of Giorgio Armani and Dior Italia, the Competition authority clarified.

“Businesses put a lot of emphasis on quality and craftsmanship. However, for the creation of some accessories, there are suspicions that they turned to ateliers and manufacturers that employed workers, who were poorly paid.” he pointed out.

“Furthermore, these employees were working longer hours than the maximum legal limit allowed and under inadequate health and safety conditions, contrary to the levels of manufacturing excellence that the businesses pride themselves on,” according to the same source.

The Italian Competition Authority is also investigating for potential violations of the consumer code, related in the way of promotion and sales from certain companies of the Armani group and from Dior companies.

“In both cases, the companies may have published misleading press releases in relation to social and ethical responsibility, in particular regarding working conditions and compliance with the law by their suppliers,” added the competition authority.

On his part, Mr Armani Group assures that the “companies involved are fully committed to cooperating with the authorities”, considering how “the allegations are baseless” and that “the investigation will reach a positive result”.

The same time, the house of Dior said it was updated in the last few weeks “by the Italian authorities for the discovery of illegal practices at two of its suppliers engaged in (partial) assembly activities of leather items for the men’s collection.”

Dior, which belongs to the world’s leading luxury goods group LVMH, “condemns in the strongest possible terms those actions that go against its values ​​and the code of ethics to which these suppliers subscribe.”

“Being fully aware of the seriousness of the violations committed by these suppliers and the improvements that need to be made to these control procedures,” Dior “is cooperating with the Italian administration and the Italian authorities.”

“No new orders will be placed with these suppliers in the future”assures Dior, adding that “apparently they managed to hide these practices, despite regular checks being carried out on them.”

An Armani group company was last April partially placed under forced administration by a Milan court for using subcontractors in violation of labor law.

The company in question is Giorgio Armani Operations spa, the court clarified in its decision.

According to judicial authorities, the company worked with a supplier, Manifatture Lombarde srl, which in turn used subcontractors, who placed orders with Chinese ateliers in the Milan area and employed undocumented foreigners to produce bags, leather goods and Armani signature accessories.

In June, a Milan court ordered Manufactures Dior Srl, a unit of Dior Italia, to also be put into receivership on similar grounds.

The company had outsourced the production of a portion of the 2024 collection of bags and accessories, according to a police press release.

An investigation had revealed the existence of suppliers described as “Chinese enterprises, which managed to reduce their costs by resorting to illegal and irregular workers under exploitative conditions”.