Milan prosecutors have expanded a significant labour exploitation investigation, with Italian police conducting raids on the offices of several major luxury brands, including Bulgari and Chanel, over allegations concerning the use of subcontractors employing Chinese workers in exploitative conditions.
The probe centres on a practice that has become deeply embedded across the luxury sector: brands subcontracting production to suppliers who in turn pass work down the chain, ultimately to firms employing migrant workers under conditions that fall well short of Italian labour law. Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari confirmed to AFP that the investigation now encompasses Brunello Cucinelli, Etro, Goyard Italie, Jacob Cohen Company, Moncler, and Stefano Ricci, in addition to previously named houses including Prada, Givenchy, and Dolce & Gabbana.
This is not the first time the investigation has produced concrete consequences. Several brands, among them Loro Piana, were placed under temporary judicial administration following earlier findings about conditions at their suppliers. Those measures were lifted only after the companies committed to strengthening supply chain oversight — a remedy that places the burden of correction squarely on the firms themselves, consistent with a market-based accountability model.
The Italian government has been notably protective of the sector. Industry Minister Adolfo Urso declared last year that the reputation of Italian luxury brands was “under attack” — a framing that sits uneasily alongside the accumulating evidence of systemic failures in supplier governance. The more sober reading is that reputational risk and legal exposure are now forcing an overdue reckoning with supply chain opacity, one that neither political sympathy nor brand prestige can indefinitely defer.