The French government threatened on Monday to bar the Chinese fashion retailer Shein from selling its products online in the country and referred the company to the Paris prosecutor after an investigation found that sex dolls “resembling children” were being sold on the company’s platform in France.
After receiving an anonymous tip, France’s consumer fraud agency said it had discovered the sale of lifelike dolls the size of little girls whose appearance “left little doubt as to the child pornography nature” of the items.
France’s economy minister, Roland Lescure, said on Monday that he would ask for Shein’s e-commerce site to be blocked in France if the company continued selling the items. “This has crossed a line,” Mr. Lescure said in an interview with French radio, adding that a formal investigation was underway. “These horrible objects are illegal,” he said.
Shein did not respond to a request for comment. The company issued a statement saying it had removed the items over the weekend.
The controversy adds to a growing backlash against Shein in France by politicians and fashionistas alike as the giant online retailer prepares to open its first physical store on Wednesday at BHV Marais, a department store in Paris with one of the most coveted retail locations in the city.
In France, as elsewhere, Shein has won over consumers with a head-spinning variety of cheap and trendy clothing sent direct from factories in China and its warehouses around the world.
As Shein looks to move beyond online retail, it plans to open brick-and-mortar stores in five other French cities. Donald Tang, executive chairman of Shein, has promoted the expansion as an “homage” to France and its role in fashion, while positioning Shein as an affordable and popular alternative to expensive French brands.
But the announcements have stirred anger in some quarters of Paris, with employees at BHV Marais last month protesting Shein’s arrival, and again on Monday after the consumer fraud agency cited the Chinese company for the sale of what it called “pedopornographic” dolls. Several French cosmetics and clothing brands pulled their items from BHV Marais last month.
French lawmakers were already working to halt Shein’s online expansion in France, citing what they have described as the incursion of a low-cost Chinese competitor that has used cheap labor and violated environmental standards to make its clothes.
The whirlwind appears to have blindsided the Société des Grands Magasins, or SGM, the French company that made it possible for Shein to set up shop in France. A wealthy French family-owned real estate empire, SGM operates BHV Marais and Galeries Lafayette, a French department store whose locations in numerous French cities will be opened to Shein for its new boutiques.
Over the weekend, SGM’s president, Frédéric Merlin, erected a giant black and white billboard atop BHV Marais, picturing himself standing next to Mr. Tang and promoting the “world opening” of Shein’s first physical store.
Mr. Lescure, the French economy minister, denounced the billboards Monday as a “provocation,” given that the timing coincided with the French authorities’ finding of the sale of childlike sex dolls on Shein’s platform. One of the advertisements in question, first reported by Le Parisien newspaper, shows a life-size doll of a young girl wearing a frilly white dress and clutching a teddy bear.
In an Instagram post, Mr. Merlin said that SGM “obviously condemns the recent events related to the doll controversy.” He added, “Like everyone else, I expect clear answers from SHEIN.” But then he doubled down on his plans to let Shein open in France.
“I have decided not to reverse my decision, despite the controversy and the pressure,” he said in the post. “Because we’re doing things by the book, with ethics and transparency.”
Liz Alderman is The Times’s chief European business correspondent, writing about economic, social and policy developments around Europe.
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