Shein suspended in France. Protests under the new shop in Paris

The French government has temporarily suspended the platform Shein, following complaints about the sale of child sex dolls and weapons on its platform. A report to the public prosecutor's office, in fact, allegedly revealed that weapons (machetes and knuckle-draggers) and inflatable dolls with the likeness of little girls were being sold on the platform.

The Singapore-based company, founded by Chris Xu in 2012, has taken note of the Lecornu government's decision to temporarily halt third-party sales on its platform - which has increasingly developed as a marketplace in recent years - and said it would quickly initiate a dialogue with the authorities: 'We take note of the announcement made today by the government. The safety of our customers and the integrity of our marketplace (a virtual sales site where products are offered for sale by third parties, ed.) are top priorities,' Shein France spokesman Quentin Ruffat said in a statement.

The inflatable dolls and weapons scandal is only the latest in chronological order to hit the ultra fast fashion giant in France. Shein's recent decision to land across the Alps with a series of stores (in Dijon, Reims, Grenoble, Angers and Limoges) under the prestigious Bvh and Galeries Lafayette banners (in department stores that, however, have been sold by Lafayette to Societé des Grand Magasins) has created a number of ill-feelings in the home of haute couture and led to the breaking of the affiliation contract between Galeries Lafayette and the SGM group, in place since 2021: the seven shops held and managed by Sgm, in which Shein shops are planned, will change their names.

Today, 5 November, at the opening of Shein's first non-temporary physical shop, 1,000 square metres in the Marais, on the top floor of the Bhv department stores', a crowd of demonstrators gathered in front of the shop to protest against the opening. And some brands - including Disney, which cancelled its presence at Bvh with a Christmas pop-up - reportedly withdrew from the Parisian multi-brand in protest against the ultra fast fashion brand's arrival.

France - the first European nation to adopt extended producer responsibility in textiles - has always been at the forefront of the fight against ultra fast fashion: despite the complicated political situation, a law against ultra low-cost fashion has been passed in the Senate at first reading. The bill introduces an eco-score system that will assess the environmental impact of products sold by fast fashion companies, including emissions, resource use and recyclability, and will establish a possible tax to be levied on products and prohibit, among other things, advertising for these platforms.