Brussels v. Shein: clarify child protection policies

The querelle between the European Union and non-European ecommerce platforms continues. Once again in the crosshairs of the institutions is Shein, an ultra fast fashion platform based in Singapore that also sells third-party goods through the marketplace formula.

The European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg this week, passed a resolution calling for a crackdown on illegal and dangerous products sold to EU consumers via non-EU e-commerce platforms such as Shein, Temu, AliExpress and Wish. Meanwhile, the European Commission said it had asked the e-commerce giant for detailed information and internal documents to demonstrate how it ensures that minors are not exposed to age-inappropriate content and how it prevents the circulation of illegal products. The European Commission stated that it 'suspects that Shein's system may pose a systemic risk to consumers across the European Union' following reports in France.

The vote came after the scandal in France over the online sale of child-looking sex dolls and weapons, which exposed serious flaws in the supervision of the platforms. And which had led the French government to temporarily suspend the platform.

In the text of the resolution, MEPs called on the Commission and Member States to enforce the Digital Services Act and the General Product Safety Regulation, and urged the temporary suspension of non-compliant platforms from the EU market in the event of serious, repeated or systemic violations.

The resolution reiterates the strong concern over the high volume of non-compliant parcels from non-EU marketplaces already highlighted by the European Commission in a recommendation of 5 February last, in which it pointed out the veritable wave of parcels (4.6 billion a year) invading the EU, 91% of which come from China. Most are small consignments, or in any case of a value of less than EUR 150, which benefit from the de minimis exemption from tariffs. At the last Ecofin meeting, the economy ministers of the 27 approved the abolition of de minimis which should - in the Council's intentions - be brought forward to 2026 (as opposed to 2028, the year in which the European customs data-sharing hub will come into force). With this in mind, the resolution passed by the Europarliament also called formore resources for customs and surveillance authorities to strengthen controls on non-compliant goods entering the Union.