France reduces legal demands against Shein in appeal hearing

Paris (France) - In the initial hearing, the French state requested a complete block of the Shein website for selling illicit products. On Thursday, during the appeal, the state demanded the blocking of only the marketplace reserved for third-party sellers on the Asian platform. The Paris Court of Appeal will deliver its decision on March 19.

On December 19, the Paris judicial court rejected the request for a total suspension of the Shein site in France. The court deemed the request “disproportionate” while acknowledging the existence of “serious harm to public order”. The case concerned the sale of sex dolls resembling young girls, category A weapons, and banned medicines.

At the initial hearing, the state had already softened its position by making a subsidiary request. This request aimed solely at suspending the marketplace for third-party seller products. The state is now maintaining this demand before the court of appeal.

Through its lawyer, Renaud Le Gunehec, the state asked the judges to order Shein to revert to the situation that existed between early November and late December 2025. This would limit its activity to selling Shein-branded clothing, excluding any products offered by third-party sellers.

In early November, facing controversy, Shein suspended products from third-party sellers on its own initiative to conduct an internal audit. Since the beginning of January, the company has progressively reopened its marketplace to non-clothing products.

The measure requested by the state would be imposed for a period of three months under the supervision of Arcom, the digital regulator.

The state is also asking the court of appeal to require the platform to implement effective control measures to prevent the resurgence of illicit sales of similar products.

Alternatively, if the request to suspend the marketplace is rejected, the state has requested a “freeze” on it as it currently exists in France, in order to prevent the arrival of new sellers.

The judicial court had also ordered the company not to resume selling adult pornographic products without implementing an effective age filter.

Shein, represented by its lawyers Julia Bombardier and Kami Haeri, maintains that the state's request is obsolete, as it was in the initial hearing, since the contentious products were quickly removed and the damage has, thus,

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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