EU: NGO accuses LVMH-owned leather-maker of lobbying to weaken EU anti-deforestation law while importing hides linked to deforestation
"LVMH-owned leather-maker linked to deforestation pushes to weaken EU green law", 27 April 2026
An Italian leather-maker owned by French luxury giant LVMH has purchased animal skins from Paraguayan companies tied to deforested land, according to an NGO investigation, even as its CEO pushes for exemptions under EU anti-deforestation rules.
Backed by some European lawmakers and government officials, industry lobbyists have been trying to convince the European Commission that leather should not be covered by new rules restricting imports of products tied to deforestation. The sector claims it does not cause deforestation because leather is a meat-industry byproduct. Once animals are slaughtered, their skins would go to waste if they weren’t bought by tanneries to make products like bags, belts, and car seat covers, it argues...
An investigation by NGO Global Witness, a campaign group that investigates the impact of business on the environment, shows that Nuti Ivo has worked with suppliers that have a high risk of causing deforestation across more than 100,000 hectares in Paraguay — including on land claimed by Indigenous communities. The investigation, shared exclusively with POLITICO, also finds that Nuti is part owner of a Paraguayan tannery shipping those skins to Nuti Ivo, the company of which he is CEO.
Both LVMH — which also owns Christian Dior, Tiffany & Co, and Sephora — and Nuti Ivo have said they do not source skins from South America. They cite a group-wide “commitment to halt any deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems, within both its operations and supply chains by 2025.”...
When first asked for comment on the investigation’s findings, LVMH said Nuti Ivo Group had adopted its policies of banning leather sourced from South America.
Yet when later presented with the export data, a spokesperson for the company said Nuti Ivo has “sourced very small quantities in South America as part of sourcing pre-existing its acquisition.”... The spokesperson made a distinction between LVMH brands — the “House” — and Métiers d’Art, which brings together LVMH’s key supply chains. He added that, since the acquisition of Nuti Ivo, it “has engaged in discussions with a view to the gradual cessation of these residual contracts.”
LVMH said it “has never undertaken any action to lobby EU institutions to reduce the scope of the EU Deforestation Regulation” and is “fully committed to combating deforestation.” Fabrizio Nuti and the Nuti Ivo Group did not respond directly to multiple requests for comment. COTANCE, a leather industry association of which Nuti Ivo is a member, told Global Witness that Nuti Ivo “adopted the policies of the [LVMH] Group.”...