Overview
- Milan prosecutor Paolo Storari is investigating Tod’s and three managers for alleged labor exploitation, reportedly the first time this probe has directly targeted a label and its employees.
- Judge Domenico Santoro set a Dec. 3 hearing on the request to bar Tod’s from advertising for six months.
- A 144-page Oct. 29 filing details unannounced police inspections at six suppliers that found 53 workers—mostly Chinese—underpaid, lacking proper contracts, and in some cases living in factory-run dormitories.
- Court documents say audits were outsourced and ignored, factories operated illegally around the clock with disabled safety devices, and prosecutors characterize the conduct as malicious and profit-driven.
- Tod’s rejects the allegations, points to Italy’s top court rejecting earlier bids for judicial administration and upholding a jurisdiction shift toward the Marche, and says it is reviewing the new material.