Zara is the flagship brand of Inditex, one of the largest fashion retailers in the world. The brand has been heavily criticized for its fast fashion model, which encourages overproduction, textile waste, and environmental degradation. Investigations have linked Zara to exploitative labor practices, including wage theft and poor working conditions in supplier factories across countries like Brazil, Turkey, and Bangladesh.
In 2023 and 2024, Zara also became a target of the BDS grassroots campaign after showcasing products in an Israel-themed marketing campaign at a time of escalating Israeli violence in Gaza. The campaign featured a model draped in white surrounded by rubble, widely interpreted as a normalization of Israeli destruction in Palestine. Zara refused to take accountability, prompting widespread calls for boycott across the Middle East, Latin America, and among global Palestine solidarity networks.
Inditex earns a High Impact rating for its role in driving fast fashion’s global harm through environmental degradation, labor exploitation, and political complicity. As the parent company of Zara and other major labels, Inditex accelerates overproduction and landfill waste on a massive scale. Its supply chains have been linked to wage theft, forced labor, and abuse in countries including Brazil, Turkey, and China—where reports indicate continued sourcing from suppliers tied to Uyghur forced labor as recently as 2022.
Politically, Inditex has drawn backlash for supporting harmful narratives during times of active violence. The company stood by a Zara campaign widely interpreted as aestheticizing the Israeli assault on Gaza, dismissing calls for accountability. This, combined with longstanding sourcing and sustainability failures, positions Inditex as a powerful driver of systemic harm in both material and cultural spheres.