Shein bans sale of sex dolls following French threat to block platform

By Joseph Ataman, Billy Stockwell, CNN

Paris (CNN) — Chinese e-commerce platform Shein announced on Monday a “complete ban” on sex dolls on its site after France threatened to cut off its access to the French market.

Over the weekend, France’s anti-fraud office, the DGCCRF, accused the fast-fashion platform of selling sex dolls “with a childlike appearance,” saying in a statement: “Their description and their categorization on the site make it difficult to doubt the pedopornographic nature of the content.”

The dolls were available for purchase on the French version of Shein’s platform until 4 a.m. local time Monday, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV, which prompted a stark warning from French Finance Minister Roland Lescure.

“I want to be very clear: If these behaviors are repeated, we will be entitled to… ban access to the French market for the Shein platform,” he told BFMTV Monday. “These horrible objects are illegal,” he added.

Amid the controversy, Shein said it had implemented a “complete ban on all sex-doll products, removing every related listing and visual from the platform,” telling CNN in a Monday statement that its “adult products” category had been temporarily delisted while a comprehensive review was carried out.

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 this scandal couldn’t be worse for the Chinese platform. On Wednesday, Shein is due to open its very first brick-and-mortar store in Paris – the first in the world – which will be followed by more shops across France.

French authorities have passed the case onto French prosecutors, as well as the French telecom regulator, according to Lescure.

In its statement, the anti-fraud office said the sharing of pedophilic material on “electronic networks” is punishable with up to seven years’ imprisonment and a €100,000 ($115,000) fine under French law. It also said the sale of the dolls shows Shein does not have sufficient safeguards in place against minors accessing pornographic material on its website, also a crime under French law.

France’s High Commissioner for Childhood, Sarah El-Haïry, told BFMTV Monday that she wanted to identify both the sellers and buyers of these dolls.

In 2018, online retail giant Amazon was embroiled in a similar affair, after third-party sellers used the platform to hawk child sex dolls. Amazon removed the products from sale.

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