Overview
- France’s DGCCRF said listings for childlike sex dolls on Shein left little doubt of a pedopornographic nature and referred the case to public prosecutors and Arcom.
- Shein removed the items, opened an internal investigation, and announced a global ban on all sex‑doll‑type products, with CEO Donald Tang taking personal responsibility.
- French law requires clearly illegal content to be taken down within 24 hours and allows blocking and delisting of services that fail to comply, with offenses punishable by up to seven years in prison and a €100,000 fine.
- The watchdog also cited a lack of effective age‑filtering for pornographic products and said legal action was initiated against AliExpress over similar dolls, which that platform said it removed.
- The controversy lands days before Shein’s planned Paris store opening at BHV Marais, where protests and some brand withdrawals add to pressure on a company already fined €191 million in France this year.