“Today, following an investigation coordinated at the European level, the network of cooperation in consumer protection under the national consumer protection authorities and the European Commission notified SHEIN […] of a series of practices on its platform that violate EU consumer protection laws. The network instructed SHEIN to make these practices compliant with EU consumer protection legislation,” the European Commission stated in a release.
At a time when the Chinese platform continues to face scrutiny and must provide information to the cooperation network in consumer protection (comprising authorities from Belgium, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands, under the coordination of the European Commission), it has been found that “a wide range of practices confront consumers shopping on SHEIN, violating EU laws.”
The practices in question include false discounts, pressure on users to purchase due to fake deadlines, incorrect information, misleading labels, false sustainability claims, and concealment of contact data.
This investigation into SHEIN complements ongoing action in the digital services domain.
In February, the European Commission announced an investigation into the Chinese e-commerce platform SHEIN to determine the presence of unfair practices in the EU, following a similar probe into Temu, with a desire for increased scrutiny on low-cost orders.
Consumer protection in the EU ensures rights such as product safety, transparency in purchases, and a 14-day return period for online shopping.
