Chinese e-commerce giant Shein has announced a “complete ban” on sex dolls from its platform after France threatened to block its access to the French market.
Over the weekend, France’s anti-fraud office accused the fast-fashion platform of selling sex dolls “with a childlike appearance”.
In a statement the Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said: “Their description and their categorisation on the site make it difficult to doubt the pedo-pornographic nature of the content.”
The dolls were on sale on the French version of Shein’s platform until early Monday, prompting a stark warning from French Finance Minister Roland Lescure.
“I want to be very clear: If these behaviours are repeated, we will be entitled to… ban access to the French market for the Shein platform,” he told French news outlet BFMTV on Monday.
“These horrible objects are illegal.”
Responding to the controversy, Shein said it had implemented a “complete ban on all sex doll products, removing every related listing and image from the platform”.
The company told CNN on Monday that its “adult products” category had also been temporarily taken down while a comprehensive review was conducted.
Donald Tang, Shein’s executive chairman, said the “fight against child exploitation is non-negotiable for Shein.”
The company said in an earlier statement that the relevant products were removed from sale as soon as the company became aware of “these serious issues”.
“We take this matter extremely seriously,” that statement said.
“Such content is completely unacceptable and goes against everything we stand for. We are taking immediate corrective actions and reinforcing our internal controls to prevent this from happening again.”
The timing of the scandal is particularly awkward for Shein, which is set to open its first-ever physical store, which happens to be in Paris – with plans for further outlets across France.
French authorities have referred the case to prosecutors and the telecom regulator.
In a statement, the anti-fraud office said that sharing pedophilic material on “electronic networks” carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison and a €100,000 (£88,000) fine under French law.
It added that selling the dolls demonstrates that Shein lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent minors from accessing pornographic material on its site, which is also a criminal offence.
France’s High Commissioner for Childhood, Sarah El-Haïry, told BFMTV on Monday that she wants to identify both the sellers and buyers of these dolls.
A similar controversy hit Amazon in 2018, when third-party sellers used the platform to offer child sex dolls, which were subsequently removed.
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