Shein gets rid of suspension in France, but remains under surveillance

The e-commerce platform has, for now, escaped suspension after removing all illicit products from its website, but remains under “close surveillance”, the French government announced this Friday (7). The country’s authorities had given the platform, on Wednesday, a 48-hour deadline to remove “prohibited” products from the portal, after the discovery of child-looking sex dolls and category A weapons.

The French government reported, this Friday, in a statement, that it had achieved “the removal, by Shein, of all illicit products sold on its platform”. To this end, the Asian company decided to suspend its “marketplace”, a space in which third parties can offer products online.

Founded in and headquartered in , the company opened its first permanent physical store in the world on Wednesday. But the company remains under pressure in France. A new meeting is scheduled for next week, at the request of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, to reassess the situation.

Shein is not out of the woods yet, as it remains “under close surveillance” by public authorities, while legal proceedings against the company continue.

This Friday, the French Ministry of the Interior sued the Paris judicial court with the aim of “putting an end to the serious damage to public order caused by Shein’s repeated failures”, announced the government. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office also reported on Monday that it had opened investigations not only into Shein, but also into the platforms AliExpress, Temu and Wish.

The investigations focus on “the dissemination of violent, pornographic or anti-dignity messages accessible to minors”. In the cases of Shein and AliExpress, they also include the “dissemination of images or representations of minors with a pornographic nature”. France is also seeking to act at a European level and, on Thursday, asked it to sanction Shein.

*With information from AFP

Published by Nátaly Tenório