The European Union on Wednesday stepped up its pressure on Shein after French authorities found illegal weapons and child-like sex dolls on the fast-fashion company’s website.
The European Commission said it was using the bloc’s Digital Rulebook, also known as the ‘digital acquis,’ to demand more information from the firm on what it’s doing to protect children.
Why is the EU getting involved?
The issue of the dolls first arose in early November when French authorities condemned Shein for featuring the figures with childlike features for sale on its website. Authorities then discovered large quantities of illegal weapons, including firearms, knives and machetes.
The French government responded by moving to suspend access to the Shein website in France.
It also asked the European Commission — the EU’s executive branch — to investigate under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which requires online platforms to do more to protect users, with the threat of hefty financial penalties to those that don’t comply.
The Commission said it now has “serious indications that indeed Shein may be posing more systemic risks for our consumers across the entire European Union,” spokesman Thomas Regnier said at a daily briefing in Brussels, adding that the executive arm had two key questions that needed answering.
“First, what are the systems that the company has put in place to prevent these illegal goods from being sold online? Second, what has the company done to prevent minors from accessing them?”
What do we know about Shein and what have they said so far?
Shein was founded in China in 2012 but is now based in Singapore. While the company officially moved its headquarters to Singapore, a large portion of its manufacturing and production is still located in China.
The company responded by acknowledging the EU’s request, and that “we are working to promptly address it” while maintaining “an ongoing and constructive dialogue with EU regulators.”
Shein has seen a meteoric rise amid a disrupting new trend in the global textile industry.
The company deploys the so-called “fast fashion” business model whereby it creates products en masse, making them at low cost, and bringing them to retail quickly while demand is at its highest.
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
