Paris
—
France has threatened to minimize off Shein’s entry to the French market after the Chinese e-commerce platform was accused by French authorities of promoting “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.”
Until 4 a.m. native time Monday, the dolls have been out there for buy on the French model of Shein’s platform, in accordance to NCS affiliate BFMTV, prompting a stark warning from French finance minister Roland Lescure.
“I want to be very clear: If these behaviors are repeated, we will be entitled to… ban access to the French market for the Shein platform,” he instructed BFMTV Monday. “These horrible objects are illegal,” he added.
France’s anti-fraud workplace, the DGCCRF, accused Shein Saturday of promoting the childlike sex dolls, saying in an announcement: “Their description and their categorization on the site make it difficult to doubt the pedopornographic nature of the content.”
Shein didn’t instantly reply to a NCS request for remark.
But in an announcement to BFMTV, Shein mentioned it had instantly eliminated all of the related merchandise from sale as soon as they’d been flagged.
“We take this situation extremely seriously,” Quentin Ruffat, a spokesperson for Shein, instructed BFMTV. “This type of content is completely unacceptable and goes against all the values we stand for. We are taking immediate corrective action and strengthening our internal mechanisms to prevent such a situation from happening again.”
French authorities have handed the case onto French prosecutors, in addition to the French telecom regulator, in accordance to Lescure.
In its assertion, the anti-fraud workplace mentioned the sharing of pedophilic materials on “electronic networks” is punishable with up to seven years’ imprisonment and a €100,000 ($115,000) superb beneath French legislation. It additionally mentioned the sale of the dolls exhibits Shein doesn’t have enough safeguards in place in opposition to minors accessing pornographic materials on its web site, additionally a criminal offense beneath French legislation.
France’s High Commissioner for Childhood, Sarah El-Haïry, instructed BFMTV Monday that she wished to establish each the sellers and consumers of those dolls.
The timing of this scandal couldn’t be worse for the Chinese platform. On Wednesday, Shein is due to open its very first brick-and-mortar retailer in Paris – the primary on the earth – which can be adopted by extra retailers throughout France.
In 2018, on-line retail large Amazon was embroiled in an analogous affair, after third-party sellers used the platform to hawk little one sex dolls. Amazon eliminated the merchandise from sale.