A new law requires French models to get doctor’s note

England has worked to ban ads that abuse photoshop and now France is enforcing a law that will require models to receive a medical note that proves that are healthy enough to work and for magazines to note when an ad has been “touched up”.

French lawmakers have moved to clamp down on the fashion industry’s use of extremely thin models and excessive image-altering.

This new law has teeth: Any employer who breaks it could land themselves in prison for up to six months and pay a fine of 75,000 Euros (or around $81,000). Any commercial photos (a.k.a. advertisements) of models that have been digitally altered, whether the airbrushing is done to make certain body parts thinner or larger, must now include text that reads “retouched photograph”. To make the grade, their body mass-index – which measures the percent of body fat relative to height and weight – will be checked to see if it’s within guidelines considered healthy. Failing to do so will result in a $32,000 fine. After all, these are unrealistic images; in France, the average woman’s BMI is actually 23.2.

An earlier draft of the bill had been criticised for relying too heavily on a minimum body mass index. The new law, passed by the French High Health Authority’s ministers of health and labor, will require a written note from a doctor who’s accounted for the model’s weight, gender, and body shape. British daily, The Guardian, reported that in France, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people – majority adolescents – suffer from anorexia nervosa.

France is now the model for a healthier, more truthful fashion industry.