Clothes sold at Benetton will soon contain microchip transmitters.

The will allow the Italian retailer to track its garments from their point of manufacture to the moment they are sold in any of its shops.

Benettons introduction of "smart tag" tracking technology will be the largest example of a trend now emerging in the retail industry.

While there is no indication Benetton intends to track customers with the tags, privacy groups are worried that the technology could lend itself to unauthorised customer monitoring.

www.benetton.com