OPEN LETTER OF OBSERVATION AND PROPOSAL ON THE FASHION LEGALITY PROTOCOL (May 2025)
ARNIA – Società Cooperativa Sociale MADE IN ITALY, an ethical, certified and socially impactful textile converter, fully supports the founding principles of the Fashion Legality Protocol signed at the Prefecture of Milan in May 2025, recognizing its value as a fundamental tool to strengthen legality, traceability and the protection of workers’ dignity in the fashion supply chain. However, in light of recent news coverage involving the Armani Group and its company GA OPERATION, which was fined over 3.5 million euros by the Italian Antitrust Authority for unfair practices in managing its production chain [ link – RAINEWS – multa ad Armani per pratica scorretta ], we believe it is necessary to raise, with full clarity, several critical concerns and concrete proposals.
This case is emblematic and clearly shows that the real issue lies not in the lack of tools for monitoring, but in the absence of a daily and responsible culture of supply chain supervision. Inspection practices focused solely on the aesthetic or technical quality of products — often to demand discounts — while ignoring working conditions, contractual protections, hours, and environmental safety, reveal a purely formal approach to compliance, often driven by profit logic.
In this context, requiring all companies — including organizations like ARNIA — to disclose sensitive data about their suppliers, know-how, operational structures and business methods, in order to prove their technical capacity to deliver, risks creating an open field for those actors who have already demonstrated their inability to ensure ethical and lawful practices. Under these premises, we risk excluding highly competent converters from the market.
The textile converter is not a passive intermediary, but an active and daily guardian of the supply chain, applying systematic audits, controls, training, and ethical selection.
ARNIA, as a non-profit social cooperative under Law 381/1991, integrates and values a team that includes over 30% of disadvantaged workers with regular contracts. Profits are not distributed but reinvested, partly to support the supply chain by ensuring fair pricing and rapid payments. Our structure is based on short, traceable supply chains, internationally recognized certifications (GOTS, GRS, FSC, ECOVERO™, ISO 26000), an active whistleblowing system, ongoing adaptation to the MOG 231 model, and regular independent social and environmental audits.
Confusing transparency with full exposure of strategic information means overlooking the protections granted by Italian law in terms of trade secrets and intellectual property (art. 98 of the Italian Industrial Property Code). For this reason, we propose that the Protocol’s digital Platform adopt a graduated and selective disclosure model, including differentiated visibility levels, access protections via NDAs, and proper recognition of the specific legal and operational status of social cooperatives and converters.
Furthermore, we request the establishment of a permanent technical working group at the Prefecture to balance legality, disclosure, and the protection of know-how, as well as formal recognition of pre-existing and certified compliance systems.
ARNIA reiterates its full willingness to contribute constructively to the Fashion Legality Protocol’s implementation so that it becomes an effective and sustainable tool for all. We must distinguish between those who only declare legality and those who practice it every day: recent cases show that the real risks lie not with ethical converters, but with large structures that lack real internal control.
Transparency must not become a trap for the weakest nor a weapon for the strongest. We ask for the commitment and investments made over the years in quality, legality, and inclusion to be recognized and valued, even if they have been achieved without media fanfare. True Made in Italy is built with competence, discipline, social justice, and respect.
The Board of ARNIA MADE IN ITALY submitted this open letter to the Authorities today August 6, 2025
Lettera Aperta alla Prefettura di Milano dated 06/08/2025
sending receipt dared 07/08/2025
Reply REGIONE LOMBARDIA – RL_RLAOOP3_2025_992 dated 12/08/2025
Formal requerst to apply to Technics TeamRichiesta ex art 5 dated 14/08/2025
