A new site in view of justice. American online sales platform eBay is the target of an investigation after being reported by the government for the sale of illegal products, the fifth procedure of this kind after those targeting Shein, AliExpress, Temu and Wish, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
In mid-November, after the outbreak of the scandal around Shein, Minister of Trade Serge Papin announced in our column a new report of online sales platforms to court, including five (AliExpress, Joom, eBay, Temu, Wish) for the sale of illegal products. Regarding eBay, the minister indicated that sales of “category A weapons, such as brass knuckles and machetes,” had been detected, such as on Wish, Temu and AliExpress.
EBay intends to “cooperate” with authorities
Requested by AFP, prosecutors clarified on Tuesday that a fifth investigation had been opened, regarding the American online sales site. When asked in mid-November, eBay assured that it would continue to “work tirelessly to prevent the sale of prohibited items on its platform” and “cooperate” with “French regulatory authorities on this.”
The scandal emerged in early November after the DGCCRF announced that it had brought to court the marketing of child pornographic sex dolls by Asian e-commerce giant Shein. In early November, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced that it had entrusted four investigations to the Office for Minors (Ofmin), on four platforms (Shein, AliExpress, Temu and Wish).
In the government’s view, the Shein platform was summoned this Wednesday morning to a Paris court, which must decide on the suspension of the site in France after the discovery of the sale of child-like sex dolls and category A weapons. Shein managers were summoned on December 2 before the sustainable development committee of the National Assembly.
