The European Commission increases pressure on Shein and the hearing in Paris is scheduled for December 5

The European Commission increased pressure on China's Shein on Wednesday, saying the online platform could pose a “systemic risk” to consumers and demanding more information from the company after illegal items were found for sale on its marketplace.

Fast fashion retailer Shein has been embroiled in a scandal in France since the country's consumer watchdog found child sex dolls and banned the sale of weapons on its online marketplace, tainting the launch of its first permanent store at Paris department store BHV.

“Following the sale of illegal products in France and several public reports, the Commission suspects that Shein's system may represent a systemic risk to consumers across the European Union,” the European Commission said, adding that it has made a formal request to Shein for more information under the Digital Services Act, an EU law governing online platforms. A Shein spokesperson said the company had received the request and was working to address it immediately.

The French government is pressuring the Commission to open a formal investigation into Shein under the DSA, but has so far stopped short of doing so. Separately, on Wednesday, a Paris court delayed a hearing on the French government's request to suspend Shein's website in the country for three months.

The hearing, which was due to take place on Wednesday, was postponed until December 5 after a French state lawyer said Shein delayed submitting his arguments until the last minute on Tuesday, making it impossible for the hearing to take place. A lawyer for Shein, Julia Bombardier, said: “We were ready to come forward today and we will be ready on December 5 as well.”

Shein removed marketplace products (provided by third-party sellers) from its website in France on November 5, but the website, which sells Shein's own clothing range, is still accessible. The government aims to secure a three-month suspension of the Shein website as a whole through an extraordinary judicial proceeding, while pressuring the company to tighten controls over the products it sells.

The government started the process on the opening day of its BHV store. The Paris store and five others set to open in regional department stores are not expected to be affected.

“We must put an end to this online Wild West,” Serge Papin, French minister for small and medium-sized businesses, said on television network TF1 on Wednesday. “Shein has closed its market but now we want proof that what it will bring to the market is in line with our consumer codes.”

AliExpress and Joom could also be the subject of a lawsuit, Papin added, after child sex dolls were also found for sale on those marketplaces. AliExpress banned a Chinese doll seller after Reuters found the items for sale on the platform a week after Paris prosecutors announced an investigation into it and Shein for disseminating images or depictions of minors of a pornographic nature.

At a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday, Frédéric Merlin, president of SGM, which owns BHV, attempted to distance himself from the Shein market and condemned the sale of child sex dolls, saying he had examined all Shein products sold in the BHV store. He called on lawmakers to tighten legislation on online platforms and hold them responsible for products sold by third parties.