France suppresses Shein over childlike sex dolls and banned weapons

France suppresses Shein over childlike sex dolls and banned weapons

Online marketplaces, with multiple vendors, display and ship their goods globally

The crackdown on Shein by France over childlike sex dolls and banned weapons has exposed a major problem of online platforms: They have failed to rein-in third-party sellers and block sales of counterfeit, illegal, dangerous, and offensive goods.

Online marketplaces, with multiple vendors displaying and shipping their goods globally, have boomed over the past decade. Amazon, Alibaba, Temu and Shein generate massive revenues by offering consumers a seemingly endless array of low-cost products, most of which do not comply with safety standards and legal requirements.

In 2022, Amazon was criticised in Britain for selling illegal weapons, and in 2018, for selling sex dolls resembling children. The same issues have now caused an uproar in France with the government set to ban Shein, a global e-commerce platform.

Sylvia Maurer, director of advocacy coordination at the European Consumer Organization BEUC, expressed, “Because marketplaces are not policing the products all the time, you can find lookalikes or even the same products just being sold under a different name again, very briefly after they’ve been taken down. “It’s a little bit like fighting windmills.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the EU executive has said that Shein was meeting with the Commission after France urged the latter to investigate the Chinese online retailer under its Digital Services Act (DSA) that governs online platforms.

New York-based e-commerce analyst Juozas Kaziukenas said that Shein is popular with young and lower-income consumers for its ultra-affordable fashion. It showcases 10 million individual items on its website (the vast majority from third-party vendors) rather than its own brand clothes, estimates

Kaziukenas added, “It’s a massive catalogue from all sorts of manufacturers and sellers, and things you will find are those that no person at Shein has manually reviewed to be on the site, but it’s on the site.”

However, Shein defended that it screens product listings to identify prohibited goods or policy violations. It uses detection tools to help flag potential issues and has over 900 employees globally working on content moderation.

Similarly, Amazon claimed taking measures to prevent prohibited products from being listed by third-party sellers and continuously monitors its store.

The BEUC official explained that, as intermediaries, marketplaces are not liable for the products they sell as they are not the ‘deemed importer under EU law. BEUC is striving to change this in the upcoming customs reforms.

Gabriela da Costa, partner at law firm K&L Gates in London, said that foreign suppliers get away with selling on platforms with minimal oversight and no EU-based entity.

She added, “This leaves the authorities with no one in the EU to hold accountable, compounded by the practical and resource difficulties of enforcing against massive volumes.”

The Paris prosecutor revealed that the French authorities were investigating online marketplaces Shein, Temu, AliExpress and Wish for alleged rule breaches that include minors being able to access pornographic content via their marketplaces.

Shein, Temu, AliExpress, and Amazon Haul send products from Chinese factories directly to consumers without paying customs duties, as the EU waives these for ecommerce parcels under 150 euros ($174.93). About 4.6 billion low-value e-commerce parcels were imported into the EU in 2024. This was double the 2023 number.

Considered the global fashion capital, Paris is also increasingly frustrated with platforms selling counterfeit handbags or cosmetics.

In a radio interview, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, “In this massive flow of small parcels inundating our cities and our villages, there are counterfeit, unhealthy, and illicit products.”

France’s Budget Minister Amelie de Montchalin remarked that as the government looked for evidence of illegal products sent by Shein, customs authorities examined 100,000 low-value parcels at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The K&L Gates lawyer said, “The child-like sex doll is egregious and easy to point to because it makes headlines, but in reality, the everyday situation we’re dealing with is, for example, a cream that’s not exactly the real deal, but looks legitimate.”

Recently, the French state-owned postal service La Poste announced a partnership with Temu. It said that French consumers were ordering heavily from Chinese platforms, now accounting for 20 percent of its Colissimo parcels, the same as Amazon.

Temu added that its compliance teams work to ensure that products and sellers on its platform meet EU safety and legal requirements. AliExpress said its algorithms detect risky listings, which are then reviewed by humans.