In a recent development concerning the platform Shein, the French government has threatened to block access after discovering that the site offered models resembling children.
“I want to be very clear: if this behavior repeats, we will have the right to request a ban on Shein from the French market. This is stipulated by law,” stated French Economy Minister Roland Lescure in an interview with BFM television and RMC radio.
Lescure detailed that such measures could be enacted in instances of terrorist acts, drug trafficking, and child pornography if the platform does not remove the products within 24 hours or in the event of repeat offenses.
The minister confirmed that a judicial investigation is underway to determine why the sexual dolls were being sold on the site.
The French Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs, and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) previously issued an alert after verifying that the “Shein e-commerce site was selling child-like sexual dolls” and that “the description and categorization on the site make it difficult to doubt the pornographic nature of the content.”
Following this, French media reported that DGCCRF discovered similar products distributed on the AliExpress platform during its inspections.
Furthermore, the DGCCRF issued alerts concerning the Chinese platform Temu and the American platform Wish for distributing pornographic content without filtering it from minors.
Besides Shein, the entity referred the other three platforms to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office and instructed them to comply with French legislation.
Shein, in turn, released a statement confirming the removal of the products and asserting that “it maintains a zero-tolerance policy regarding any content or product that violates our platform policies or applicable laws.”
“We take this matter very seriously. This type of content is entirely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for. We are taking immediate corrective measures and reinforcing our internal checks to prevent this from happening again,” emphasized the company, confirming an internal investigation into how these dolls bypassed site controls.
This is not the first conflict between French authorities and the Chinese giant, which is frequently accused of unfair competition in France and Europe overall.
In France, Shein has already faced various sanctions related to the illegal imposition of ‘cookies’ (small files stored on devices accessing sites, often used by these sites to send targeted advertising) without adequately informing users.
The most recent sanction, a fine of 150 million euros, was imposed last September.
The government also plans to impose a two-euro fee on small packages from outside the European Union starting in 2026, with Shein and other Chinese sites like Temu being primary targets.
