A French consumer protection body found that in addition to Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein, five other online platforms sold illicit products in France, a spokesman for Trade Minister Serge Papin said on Friday.
The watchdog, called DGCCRF, said AliExpress and Joom were selling child-like sex dolls, while weapons such as knuckles and machetes were available on Wish, Temu and eBay, the spokesperson said, confirming an article in Le Parisien newspaper.
The DGCCRF found that Wish, Temu and Amazon, based in the United States and the largest e-commerce company by market value, failed to filter underage buyers from adult content, it said.
The spokesperson said Papin has referred the platforms to public prosecutors and will invite European Union trade ministers to Paris to discuss the matter.
Amazon, Temu, eBay, AliExpress and Joom did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Find out: France decides not to suspend Shein… for now
The broad French offensive against the big foreign e-commerce leaders attempts to protect local retailers, who feel threatened by unfair competition from cheaper and better marketed products on their own territory.
Papin previously ran the Super U supermarket chain.
Similar EU initiatives include Thursday’s decision to bring forward customs duties on low-value packages arriving in the bloc by a year, to combat cheap imports from Chinese e-commerce.
Earlier this month, France’s consumer protection body sparked outrage against Shein when it claimed to have detected child-like sex dolls, weapons such as machetes and knives, and other illicit products on the Chinese-owned market.
Subsequently, a public prosecutor opened an investigation into Shein, as well as Temu, AliExpress and Wish for different possible breaches of regulations.
Following the controversy over the Shein marketplace, the French government began the process to block the platform in the country, with Finance Minister Roland Lescure threatening to completely suspend the website in France if banned products continue to be found for sale.
A week ago, after acknowledging that Shein had removed all illicit products from its website, the government suspended the process to block Shein and said it was investigating other platforms it did not identify.
With information from Reuters.
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