PARIS (Reuters) -A French consumer watchdog found that besides Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein, five other online platforms sold illicit products in France, a spokesperson for Commerce Minister Serge Papin said on Friday.
The watchdog, called DGCCRF, said AliExpress and Joom were selling child-like sex dolls, while weapons such as brass knuckles and machetes were available on Wish, Temu and eBay, the spokesperson said, confirming an article by Le Parisien newspaper.
DGCCRF found that Wish, Temu and U.S.-based Amazon, the largest e-commerce company by market value, failed to filter underage shoppers from adult content, he said.
The spokesperson said Papin referred the platforms to public prosecutors and would invite the European Union’s commerce ministers to Paris to discuss this issue.
Amazon, Temu, eBay, AliExpress and Joom did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The broad French crackdown on large foreign e-commerce leaders is an attempt to protect local retailers who feel threatened by unfair competition from cheaper and better-marketed products on their own turf.
Papin used to lead supermarket chain Super U.
Similar EU initiatives include the decision on Thursday to bring forward by one year the customs duties on low-value parcels arriving in the bloc to crack down on cheap Chinese e-commerce imports.
Earlier this month, the French consumer watchdog sparked outrage against Shein when it said it had spotted child-like sex dolls, weapons such as machetes and knives, and other illicit products on the Chinese-owned marketplace.
A public prosecutor then opened an investigation into Shein as well as Temu, AliExpress and Wish for different potential breaches of rules.
Following the furore over Shein’s marketplace, the French government started the process to block the platform in the country, with Finance Minister Roland Lescure threatening to entirely suspend the website in France if banned products continue to be found for sale.
A week ago, after acknowledging Shein had withdrawn all illicit products from its website, the government suspended the process to block Shein and said it was looking into other platforms it did not identify.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Alessandro Parodi; Editing by Richard Chang)
