After coming under fire by a French consumer watchdog organization over the weekend for selling child-like sex dolls, Shein has said that it has removed all of the products and is investigating the matter.
France’s Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control referred the matter to public prosecutors. France’s Economy Minister Roland Lescure told a media outlet on Monday that he would seek to ban Shein from the French market if such incidents happened again.
Per French law, should illegal content such as child pornographic materials not be removed within 24 hours after being notified by French authorities, authorities can have service providers and search engines block access and delist the site.
A Shein spokesperson said Monday afternoon that the “products in question were immediately delisted” as soon as the company became aware of these serious issues. “Shein maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any content or products that violate our platform policies or applicable laws,” the spokesperson said.
The fast-fashion platform’s “Marketplace Governance” team is investigating how these listings “circumvented” its screening measures and is conducting a comprehensive review to identify and remove any similar items that may be listed on the marketplace by other third-party vendors, according to the spokesperson.
“We take this matter extremely seriously. Such content is completely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for. We are taking immediate corrective actions and reinforcing our internal controls to prevent this from happening again,” the spokesperson said, without providing any specifics about preemptive measures. “We are also reiterating to all teams the importance of rigorous listing checks and preventive measures to ensure full compliance with our policies and applicable laws.”
Founded in China in 2012 and now based in Singapore, the ultra-low-cost e-tailer sells most of its goods via the Shein app and has distribution in 150 countries.
A handful of protesters were photographed by the media Monday standing in front of the BHV Marias department store in Paris, where Shein is planning to open its first freestanding store globally. As of Monday, an online petition in opposition to Shein’s plans to open there had more than 115,660 signatures.
The DGCCRF and Shein have crossed swords before. In July, the watchdog group issued a fine of 40 million euros on the fast-fashion specialist’s subsidiary Infinite Style E-commerce Ltd. for engaging in deceptive commercial practices such as misleading claims about price reductions, including offering customers “discounts” which didn’t exist. That followed a 10-month investigation that started in October 2022.
In a separate matter, Shein initiated an investigation in September after the likeness of Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare chief executive officer Brian Thompson last year, was featured on Shein’s site. Asked about the status of that investigation, the Shein spokesperson didn’t respond.
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