MEPs from EPP, S&D, Renew, and the Greens have attacked slow progress built by the European Commission enforcing consumer protection and digital governance laws against platforms including Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.
The motion for a resolution – tabled by the four parliamentary groups and seen by Euractiv – will be voted on in Strasbourg on Wednesday during the plenary session.
It follows French authorities finding last month that rapid-fashion retailer Shein was hosting listings for “child-like” sex dolls and Class A weapons.
The resolution criticises the length of time it takes for the Commission to investigate platforms – particularly non-EU ecommerce platforms – with MEPs expressing regret that investigations take “months and years” which they argue is “eroding citizens’ trust and hampering lawcreaters’ capacity to respond to rapidly emerging online risks”.
In October, Paris warned that it would suspconclude access to Shein in French markets. Shein responded by stateing it had taken down the offensive listings and, per a statement sent to Euractiv on 4 November, also declared it had reshiftd third-party sellers from its platform in France.
In their resolution the MEPs declared the Shein case has brought into focus how “unsafe and illegal products” are circulating inside the EU via online marketplaces, sparking a wider debate on Union-wide consumer protection rules.
Under the bloc’s online governance rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission has twice questioned Shein for information regarding illegal products, most recently back in February. But the EU’s executive – which oversees larger platforms’ compliance with the DSA – has not yet opened an investigation on Shein.
Shein was found to have breached EU consumer protection rules in May but has not been fined by the Commission for the violations.
Earlier this month, MEPs also sent a letter to the Commission to urge more DSA action on Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.
The EU’s executive does have open DSA investigations on AliExpress and Temu. In June and July, it issued preliminary findings that both of the platforms had broken the rules over sales of illegal products – but neither Commission probe has concluded.
(nl)
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