H&M, Adidas and G-Star are among a number of businesses who have begun to publicly disclose details of their supplier factories in recent years. Adidas has been publicly disclosing its supplier list since 2007.

Transparency also brings to light factories that are authorised or not authorised to produce clothes for a particular brand. Brands’ suppliers sometimes sub-contract their work to other factories that subject workers to dangerous or abusive conditions without authorisation and without the brands’ knowledge. Supply chain transparency helps monitoring groups alert brands to these situations so they can be addressed.

By disclosing their supplier lists, brands enable public scrutiny of their supply chains, which in turn will help alert brands to poor working conditions and other human rights problems in their supplier factories. Under the United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights, companies have a responsibility to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.

Clothing brands have been urged to promote respect for worker rights and safety by making their global supply chains transparent. However, some apparel retailers say they cannot reveal details of their suppliers due to competitive reasons.