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The French consumer protection authority has fined Shein around €22m (£19m) over failures involving customer order confirmations, product returns and environmental labelling.
The Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) announced the enforcement action on Wednesday (3 June) following an investigation into several international e-commerce platforms.
The watchdog issued a €16.7m (£14.4m) penalty for non-compliant order confirmations, and a further €5.8m (£5m) fine for issues relating to customer return policies and missing environmental quality information.
Following an investigation conducted last year, the DGCCRF found a “failure to respect the right of withdrawal”, the consumer’s inability to cancel a purchase in accordance with the terms and conditions set out by law.
It added that “once again, the lack of information regarding product traceability and the presence of plastic microfibers in the products is a problem”.
It also found the operator of Shein’s French website was sending consumers order confirmations that “did not comply with the provisions of the consumer code due to the absence of several mandatory details”, such as price and delivery dates.
A Shein spokesperson told Reuters: “Technical issues, with no impact on consumers and already addressed where necessary, have been used as the basis for an exceptional penalty. We therefore intend to strongly contest both sanctions in their entirety.”
Last year, French authorities asked the courts to suspend Shein’s website for three months after officials said that childlike sex dolls and banned weapons had been identified on the platform.
The request follows the disabling of Shein’s marketplace in France on 5 November, though the retailer’s own clothing site remains accessible. Officials are seeking a full shutdown as part of an accelerated judicial procedure intended to force tighter product controls.
The move coincided with Shein opening its first physical shop in a Paris department store. It also formed part of a broader clampdown on online platforms, after the DGCCRF found similar dolls on AliExpress and Joom, and failures by Wish, Temu and Amazon to prevent underage access to adult content.
Shein has been contacted for comment.
