French Justice Rejects Suspending Shein’s Activity as Requested by the Government

Paris.- French Justice ruled this Friday against the suspension of Shein’s activity in the country for three months, a measure that the Government had requested after it was discovered that the Chinese digital commerce platform was selling on its website sex dolls with a childlike appearance. After several postponements of the decision since the end of January, the Paris Judicial Court finally judged it disproportionate considering that the portal had voluntarily removed the illegal products after the warnings.

“Specific” Problems

The ruling, according to the public broadcaster Franceinfo, acknowledges “serious damage to public order”, both for the sale of sex dolls and for the subsequent discovery of the sale of weapons and medicines, but considered that they were “isolated” problems and that they had been removed from the platform. In the morning, the Minister of Commerce and SMEs, Serge Papin, had indicated in an interview on France 2 television that the government was “clearly expecting a suspension.”

Sale of sex dolls with a childlike appearance

The controversy with Shein emerged at the beginning of last November, following the identification of the sale of sex dolls with a childlike appearance on the platform by the French competition authorities. The government threatened the immediate suspension of the platform, but to avoid that closure at that time, the Chinese platform decided to temporarily suspend sales from external vendors and any product that was not clothing, in addition to removing the incriminated products within the time limits set by law for this type of case. The Executive renounced the immediate closure, but kept a judicial procedure open against the e-commerce giant before the Justice, aimed at obtaining this three-month suspension that has finally been rejected. Similar actions were then announced against the AliExpress and Joom portals, in which similar dolls were also found. In addition, Shein was involved in a strong controversy in Paris for its arrival at the central and iconic shopping center Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (BHV) and at a European level has also been the subject of investigations for the sale of illegal and dangerous products.