Quick Take — Black Friday, Greenpeace investigation: ‘Toxic substances on a third of Shein’s clothes’

This latest ‘Shame on you Shein!’ report looked at some of the best-selling garments sold by the Chinese fast fashion giant and found that one third of the garments tested 32% (18 out of 56) not only contained 11 substances considered toxic, but their quantity exceeded the limits set by the European Chemicals Regulation (REACH). Including children’s clothes. Garments that are considered ‘illegal’ under EU law.

Quick Take — France takes legal action against AliExpress and Joom over child sex dolls

Alibaba, Joom and Shein were recently investigated by the French authorities for selling dolls. Other e-commerce platforms, including Temu, Wish and eBay, are also under investigation for selling illicit products on their marketplaces. In some cases, these included weapons such as machetes and knuckles, as well as pornographic material accessible to minors…

France’s resistance against Shein and similar platforms intensified this month following complaints to law enforcement agencies that dolls and other illegal products were being sold on some platforms. The reports coincided with the opening of Shein ‘s first permanent French shop in a Paris department store.

The opening of the BHV shop drew crowds of shoppers and protesters, while French retail associations lashed out at what they saw as unfair competition from companies circumventing French and European regulations…

Meanwhile, the EU said on Wednesday it was investigating Shein‘s potential sale of illegal products, particularly sex dolls and weapons, under the Digital Services Act, which regulates online content.

Below: gendarmerie in front of the BHV

Quick Take — Black Friday 2025: 2.2 billion in sales expected but consumption is struggling as Italians increasingly focus on savings

this is related to two relevant phenomena in digital retail today: on the one hand, the rapid expansion of the‘second hand‘ market, on the other hand, the increasing entry of products from abroad with lower average prices. Both factors contribute to a reduction in the average shopping basket value, even in the presence of steadily increasing demand’. This is the effect of the arrival of Temu, Shein and similar platforms offering‘low price‘ products and accused of selling illegal and unreliable products.

Source

On the origin of the name read here.

On the geopolitical role of e-commerce read this article.

Compiled 20 November, updated 23 November 2025

Quick Take — France: the government has initiated proceedings to block the website of e-commerce giant Shein

following the scandal surrounding the sale of child pornographic dolls. Despite the popularity of Shein – a site visited by more than 4.4 million people a day in France – the government is waging an unprecedented legal battle to force it to shut down, even if it means circumventing European legislation. “On instructions from the Prime Minister,” reads the press release, Sébastien Lecornu’s government intends to suspend ‘Shein for as long as it takes for the platform to prove to the authorities that all its content finally complies with our laws and regulations ‘ .

Below: gendarmes in front of the BHV warehouse, in Paris, where Shein has just opened a 1,500 square metre sales space, and some reflections on theunreliability and illegality practised, in some cases, without control, by Chinese sites (there is also Temu), which is the French government’s main topic on this issue.

The fact that it has not succeeded so far means that at least the problem – which is very relevant – has finally been raised.

Update: The attempt to block Shein seems to have been dropped for now. Instead, the French government is targeting a €2 tax on every article imported from non-EU countries as a measure against Chinese ‘fast fashion’ platforms. Will it succeed? And should Italy do so too?

In Italy, in fact, there is discussion of a €2 tax on small parcels from outside the EU, proposed for the 2026 economic manoeuvre.
The measure would affect parcels weighing up to two kilograms from non-EU countries – mainly China – and would aim to raise new budgetary revenue while countering unfair competition from digital giants such as Shein and Temu, which thrive in Italy thanks to online platforms where they sell products at bargain prices.

Drafted on 6 November, updated on 13 November 2025

Le Ossa dei Caprotti’ presentation – Soroptimist, 29 October 2025

I really stopped. During that long difficult period we talked about earlier, I stopped completely. It was a time of silence, of isolation. But then, with the end of the court case and Covid, I chose to look forward. I decided to see the Covid crisis as an opportunity to help. From there my personal rebirth and my work in the Guido Venosta Foundation was born