Chanel Years Ago Developed New Practices on Repurposing Unsold Products
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Chanel Denies Claims from Hong Kong Prosecution Around Destruction of Unsold Seasonal Styles
2017 Valid Claims Reported as Today’s News
A trial underway in Hong Kong’s High Court has indirectly drawn attention to how Chanel handles unsold and discontinued inventory on a seasonal basis. Two former Chanel Hong Kong warehouse employees, identified as Ng Yiu-lun and Cheung Ka-wai, face charges of conspiring to steal 724 handbags and small leather goods that had been marked for destruction.
Prosecutors allege the pair coordinated with two additional warehouse staffers to divert the goods before they could be destroyed. Both defendants have entered not-guilty pleas, and the case remains in early proceedings.
Court documents reveal details of Chanel Hong Kong’s once-routine destruction practices. Yes, it’s staggering to read that the house reportedly destroyed between 10,000 and 20,000 discontinued Chanel products every six months as a matter of standard business operation.
This allegation is not fake news! But it’s old news and should be treated as such.
"The figure mentioned during the trial does not reflect Chanel's current global practices, which have evolved in line with its sustainability commitments," the company said in a statement shared with WWD. Without disputing the facts of the luxury brand’s practices in 2017, Chanel is aggressively pushing back against the insinuation by Hong Kong prosecutors that those practices remain in place today.
Now we have business fashion sites — who should know better — promoting the misinformation about Chanel and trying to stir up outrage online. Are they just dialing for clicks, pretending to forget the major steps that have been taken to address this once savage waste of important resources employed by luxury conglomerates to insure the exclusivity of their products?
AOC has covered this topic extensively and is pulling from the archives to give us all a reality check on the facts. Generally-speaking, all the major luxury houses have stopped destroying unsold products. Legislation went into effect in the European Union on July 19, 2026, that not only puts a legal stop to the destruction of luxury house products but requires all the major houses to file regular documentation on how they have handled the issue of unsold goods every year.
Medium-size companies will be required to comply with these new regulations in 2030.
More than any other option, products have been disassembled and reconstructed as a new product. As the WWD headline confirms L’Atelier des Matières and Nevold were created by Chanel to visually confirm how this issue is handled. LVMH has similar new departments to disassemble and repurpose unused materials and unsold products. Definitely LVMH works with young designers, allowing them to buy unused or repurposed materials at very favorable prices. AOC has all the info. We just must retrieve the posts. ~ Anne
Chanel Haute Couture Fall 2026 by Matthieu Blazy
