This photograph shows clothing labels of Asian e-commerce giant Shein at the Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville (BHV) department store in Paris on March 19, 2026. CHARLOTTE SIEMON / AFP
A French appeals court on Thursday, March 19, rejected the government's demand to temporarily suspend a section of Shein's website in France after the discovery that it was selling weapons, banned medications and childlike sex dolls.
The government had demanded the whole site be suspended, but a lower court ruled in December that the suspension was not justified because the Asian ultra-fast-fashion giant had removed the illicit products from the platform. It appealed, requesting the section of the website selling third party products called "marketplace" – which had hosted the illegal items for sale – be suspended.
But the Paris Court of Appeal ruled against this, saying "the harm that had justified the state's action no longer existed." It however upheld the ban imposed by the lower court on Shein reselling lawful adult pornographic products without adding age-verification filters to its site. The online retailer has acknowledged difficulties in implementing an effective age filter for these products.
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