New York Fashion Act: Coverage, Disclosures, and Penalties

The New York Fashion Act is a pending state bill that would require large apparel, footwear, and fashion-bag companies doing business in New York to map their supply chains, disclose environmental and labor impacts, set binding reduction targets, and face daily civil penalties if they fail to comply. It has not been signed into law. The current version, S4558B in the Senate with companion A4631B in the Assembly, sits in the Senate Consumer Protection Committee, so everything below describes what the bill would do if enacted in its present form.¹

Where the Bill Stands Now

The proposal was first introduced in 2022 as S7428 and has been revised and reintroduced in successive sessions. The 2023–2024 version, S4746B, reworked the penalty structure and disclosure timelines,² and the current 2025–2026 version carries those changes forward. It remains in committee and has not passed either chamber.

Which Companies Would Be Covered

The bill applies to apparel, footwear, and fashion-bag sellers with more than $100 million in annual worldwide revenue.³ A company does not have to be headquartered in New York. A brand based in Europe or Asia that sells to New York consumers through stores or online marketplaces would qualify if its global revenue crosses the threshold. The $100 million is measured worldwide, not by New York sales alone.

The bill also creates a separate category for multi-brand retailers whose apparel, footwear, and fashion-bag sales specifically exceed $100 million.

Supply Chain Mapping

Covered companies would need to publicly disclose suppliers across four production tiers, from the factory that assembled the finished product down to the farm that grew the fiber. The bill phases the obligations in over six years, with different coverage thresholds at each level.¹

Tier 1, final product assembly: within 12 months of the effective date, covering at least 85% of suppliers by volume.
Tier 2, component and textile manufacturing: within 2 years, covering at least 75% by volume.
Tier 3, raw material processing: within 4 years, covering at least 50% by volume or dollar value.
Tier 4, raw material production such as farms: within 6 years, covering at least 50% by volume or dollar value.

Each disclosure must include the supplier’s name, parent company, and product type. Critics have noted that the bill does not specify exactly which parts of each tier must be recorded, which could give brands room to be selective about what they publish.⁴

Environmental Disclosures and Targets

Emissions reporting is the most technically demanding piece. Companies would file an annual inventory beginning with Scope 1 (direct emissions from owned operations) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy). Scope 3, which captures the rest of the value chain including raw material extraction, transportation, supplier manufacturing, and end-of-life disposal, would be added the following year.²

Reporting would follow the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. Companies with more than $1 billion in global revenue would have to use the absolute contraction approach for Scope 3, which is the stricter method. An independent third party would verify the emissions data at least once every two years.

Beyond greenhouse gases, companies would disclose water usage and chemical management practices in their manufacturing. They would also set near-term and long-term emissions reduction targets aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative. A company that misses a target gets 18 months to get back on track. For companies over $1 billion in revenue, the bill treats three consecutive years of rising absolute emissions in non-target years as a miss.²

Labor and Social Disclosures

Companies would publish the median wages paid to workers across all four supplier tiers and compare those figures against the local minimum wage and estimated living wages in each production region.³ The point is to make the gap between actual pay and a livable wage visible in regions where it is often large.

Companies would also have to identify adverse impacts on workers and communities and cooperate in remediation. Remediation can include restitution, financial compensation, or the creation of compensation funds for affected workers. The framework encourages brands to work with suppliers on improvement through contract terms, price premiums, and technical assistance rather than exiting the relationship when problems appear.

Due Diligence Standards

Compliance is anchored to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and specifically the OECD’s guidance on responsible supply chains in the garment sector.⁴ Those guidelines are widely used internationally but do not currently have the force of law. The Fashion Act would make them mandatory for covered companies in New York. If the OECD revises its guidance, companies get 12 months to conform.

The New York Department of State, working with the Department of Environmental Conservation, would issue implementing regulations on emissions reductions, wastewater discharges, and report contents within 180 days of enactment. Annual due diligence reports must be posted publicly on each company’s website.

Enforcement and Penalties

The New York Attorney General, or a designated administrator, would enforce the law. If a company fails to conduct adequate due diligence or file a complete annual report, the Attorney General would issue a notice of non-compliance. The company then has three months to fix the problem.¹

A company that still has not complied after that window faces civil penalties of up to $15,000 per violation per day. For a large brand with multiple reporting failures, those daily fines add up quickly. This structure replaces the cap in the original 2022 bill, which had limited penalties to 2% of annual global revenue.³ The daily accrual is meant to make compliance cheaper than paying the fines.

Penalties would flow into a new Fashion Remediation Fund created under Section 97-CCC of the State Finance Law and administered by the Department of Environmental Conservation. The fund would support environmental benefit projects in communities affected by the fashion industry’s environmental impact.¹

Not the Same as the Fashion Workers Act

The Fashion Act is often confused with the New York Fashion Workers Act, which is a separate and already enacted law that took effect June 19, 2025. That law regulates the relationship between models and their management companies and requires those companies to register with the New York State Department of Labor.⁵ Complying with it has nothing to do with the pending Fashion Act, which targets supply chain due diligence at large brands.

1
New York State Senate. Senate Bill S4558A
2
New York State Senate. Senate Bill S4746B
3
New York State Senate. S7428 – Requires Fashion Retail Sellers and Manufacturers to Disclose Environmental and Social Due Diligence Policies
4
Consilience. Analysis of the New York Fashion Act: State Senate Bill S4746B
5
Ogletree Deakins. New York Releases FAQS and Guidance on the New York State Fashion Workers Act