A banner reading “Shein no thanks” hangs at Paris City Hall on the opening day of Shein’s first-ever physical store in Paris, France, 05 November 2025. Shein’s arrival has sparked controversy, with a petition calling for its cancellation gathering 110,000 signatures. In 2025, the company was fined 191 million Euros for cookie law violations, false promotions, misleading information, and failing to disclose microplastics in products. The brand is also facing scandal over dolls with pornographic content sold online. EPA/TERESA SUAREZ 
Shein has already disabled its marketplace - where third-party sellers offer their products to shoppers around the world - in France since November 5, after the government found childlike sex dolls and weapons for sale on the site, but the part of its online platform offering Shein's own clothing range is still accessible.
The government aims to secure a three-month suspension of Shein's website as a whole as it pushes the company to tighten controls over the products it sells.
"We know how powerful Shein is from a technical standpoint, and even, I would say, in terms of its use of artificial intelligence for production, so we can assume that it has the technical, technological and financial means to carry out these checks. The fact is that it does not do so," a French finance ministry official said in a press briefing.
Shein did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The court of Paris is set to hold a hearing on Wednesday on the case the government has filed against Infinite Styles Services Co Ltd, the Dublin-based company behind Shein's business in Europe, with lawyers for the company also expected to attend.
The French government started the process to block Shein in France on the day the fast-fashion retailer opened its first physical shop in a Paris department store.
France has also been cracking down on other online platforms, with the Paris prosecutor investigating Temu, AliExpress, and Wish as well as Shein over alleged rule breaches that include minors being able to access pornographic content via their marketplaces.
(Reporting by Helen Reid and Alessandro Parodi, editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Tomasz Janowski)