By Helen Reid and Mimosa Spencer
PARIS (Reuters) -France started proceedings on Wednesday to suspend online fast-fashion retailer Shein until it complies with French laws, the finance ministry said, marring the opening of Shein’s first shop in Paris department store BHV.
The discovery of child-like sex dolls on Shein’s website on Saturday fuelled an outcry. Shein said it had sanctioned the sellers and implemented a full ban on sex dolls.
“On the Prime Minister’s instructions, the government is initiating proceedings to suspend Shein for as long as necessary for the platform to demonstrate to the authorities that all of its content is finally in compliance with our laws and regulations,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
A Shein spokesperson told Reuters the company was seeking urgent consultations with authorities over the suspension. Shein said in a statement it was temporarily suspending its marketplace in France, a move the spokesperson said was already planned before the finance ministry’s statement.
It was not immediately clear if the planned suspension would impact its Paris store, which opened at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
SHEIN STORE CONTROVERSY
Protesters bearing “Shame on Shein” placards had gathered outside BHV on Wednesday as the online fast-fashion retailer opened its first shop amid fierce criticism of its low-cost business model.
After queueing for hours, dozens of shoppers filed into the 19th-century BHV department store in the city’s Marais shopping district, as riot police officers brought in to shield the store looked on.
Shein’s store, which occupies 1,000 square metres on the sixth floor of the BHV, has caused uproar among politicians including Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, as well as retailers who say that Shein’s business model has an unfair advantage and has eroded French high streets.
The first shoppers to enter the store browsed rails of Shein clothes including jeans for 27.99 euros ($33) and a black fake-leather jacket for 42.49 euros, while more still waited downstairs to be allowed in.
SGM SEES CHANCE TO BRING SHOPPERS BACK TO STORES
Shein, which sends clothes from factories in China direct to consumers in 150 countries worldwide, was approached to set up a concession by Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), which is hoping the launch will attract a younger clientele to the struggling BHV and bring benefits thanks to its ecommerce expertise.
“Every day, we’re told that physical stores are dying. Every day, we’re being told that thousands of jobs are at stake, that the French textile industry is dying, and these same critics are not the ones offering us solutions,” SGM Chairman Frederic Merlin told BFM TV. “I believe that without innovating, the future honestly doesn’t look bright.”
FRENCH GOVERNMENT HEIGHTENS SCRUTINY OF SHEIN
France has been especially robust in its reaction to Shein, and could ban it from advertising in the country under a planned law to rein in “ultra-fast” fashion that specifically targets platforms adding more than 1,000 new products a day.
“We’ve been fighting this fight against Shein for two years and to see this brand set up in a historic building … that symbolizes (the) French textile industry, it’s an unacceptable provocation,” said lawmaker Anne-Cécile Violland, who spearheaded the fast-fashion law.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer, Michaela Cabrera, Dominique Patton, Helen Reid, Inti Landauro, Lucien Libert; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
