{"id":620323,"date":"2025-12-08T15:43:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/620323\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:43:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:43:20","slug":"france-retracts-full-shein-suspension-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/620323\/","title":{"rendered":"France Retracts Full Shein Suspension, For Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFollowing some shortcomings by Shein<\/a>, the French government\u2014at the request of the Prime Minister and by way of a summons before the Paris Judicial Court\u2014launched a procedure to temporarily block the platform to stop the severe damage to public order caused by the repeated failures of the platform.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe\u00a0outrage in France<\/a> over the e-tail Goliath\u2019s sale of banned weapons<\/a> and \u00a0\u201cchildlike\u201d sex dolls<\/a> on its platform doesn\u2019t appear to be dying down\u2014just delayed. Despite taking down the listings last month, the Singapore-headquartered firm faced a three-month suspension if the French government succeeded in its appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Dec. 5 Paris court hearing, Reuters reported that a state lawyer said Shein must implement website controls\u2014such as age verification and filtering\u2014to block minors from accessing pornographic content.<\/p>\n

\n\tA decision in the case is expected on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe state has also requested that these measures be lifted only upon the implementation of truly effective technical means to prevent the sale of any illicit product,\u201d Anne Le H\u00e9nanff, the French government\u2019s minister delegate for artificial intelligence and digital technology, said in a statement. \u201cThe effectiveness of these control measures, product categorization, and the establishment of a system to screen minors would be placed under the supervision of Arcom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe state invoked Article 6.3 of France<\/a>\u2019s Digital Economy Law\u2014an act that \u201cgives a judge powers to prescribe measures with the aim of preventing or halting harm caused by online content,\u201d according to Reuters<\/a>. And, according to French law, the dissemination of representations of a pedopornographic nature via an electronic communications network is punishable by sentences of up to seven years imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 euros, or $115,500.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t claim to be here to replace the European Commission,\u201d a state lawyer said, as reported by France 24. \u201cWe are not here today to regulate, we are here to prevent harm, faced with things that are unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLe H\u00e9nanff and economy minister Roland Lescure<\/a> wrote to Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission\u2019s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, in early November, urging an immediate investigation into Shein.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe repeated marketing of illegal content shows that the platform has failed to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act, particularly in terms of protecting minors, combating illegal content and ensuring the traceability of its sellers,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Shein did not respond to Sourcing Journal\u2019s request for comment, the fast fashion<\/a> brand previously said it was \u201cseeking dialogue\u201d with local authorities and government bodies \u201con this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur priority is customer safety and marketplace integrity,\u201d said Quentin Ruffat<\/a>, Shein\u2019s head of public affairs in France. \u201cThis suspension enables us to strengthen accountability and ensure every product meets our standards and legal obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInitiated as part of an accelerated judicial procedure intended to prioritize proceedings, the hearing summoned lawyers for both Shein and Infinited Styles Services\u2014the Dublin-based company that operates its European websites and apps. The government also summoned the internet service providers Bouygues Telecom, Free, Orange and SFR to the hearing to request that they block Shein\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe hearing was initially scheduled for Nov. 26\u2014exactly a month after France\u2019s crackdown on the platform took a marked turn from previous debates over \u201ceco-taxes\u201d on fast fashion\u2014before being postponed.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, several member states will send a joint letter urging collective action against the harmful effects of e-commerce platforms to the European Commission before the Dec. 8 \u201cCompetitiveness\u201d Council meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\tTangentially, Shein is also facing a 3 billion-euro ($3.5 billion) lawsuit from thousands of French retailers accusing it of poaching customers<\/a> through \u201cmisleading commercial practices\u201d and \u201cbreaches of product conformity and safety obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following some shortcomings by Shein, the French government\u2014at the request of the Prime Minister and by way of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,13403,36,26682,8162],"class_list":{"0":"post-620323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-fast-fashion","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-legislation","13":"tag-shein"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115684717687724491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}