PARIS - France will ask a Paris judge on Wednesday to order the suspension of Chinese online fast-fashion platform Shein in France for three months, a French finance ministry official said on Tuesday.
Shein has already disabled its marketplace - where third-party sellers offer their products to shoppers around the world - in France since November 5, after the government found childlike sex dolls and weapons for sale on the site, but the part of its online platform offering Shein's own clothing range is still accessible.
The government aims to secure a three-month suspension of Shein's website as a whole as it pushes the company to tighten controls over the products it sells.
"We know how powerful Shein is from a technical standpoint, and even, I would say, in terms of its use of artificial intelligence for production, so we can assume that it has the technical, technological and financial means to carry out these checks. The fact is that it does not do so," a French finance ministry official said in a press briefing.
Shein did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The court of Paris is set to hold a hearing on Wednesday on the case the government has filed against Infinite Styles Services Co Ltd, the Dublin-based company behind Shein's business in Europe, with lawyers for the company also expected to attend.
The French government started the process to block Shein in France on the day the fast-fashion retailer opened its first physical shop in a Paris department store.
France has also been cracking down on other online platforms, with the Paris prosecutor investigating Temu, AliExpress, and Wish, as well as Shein, over alleged rule breaches that include minors being able to access pornographic content via their marketplaces.
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