PARIS (Reuters) -Shein imposed a total ban on sex dolls in its marketplace and suspended the “adult products” category after French Finance Minister Roland Lescure threatened on Monday to ban the Chinese online retailer in France if it ever sold childlike sex dolls again.
The company said it imposed “strict sanctions” on the merchants and strengthened controls by extending a keyword blacklist to prevent would-be sellers from circumventing its rules.
“While each seller is responsible for their own listings, Shein does not tolerate any violation of its internal rules and policies,” it said in a statement hours after Lescure’s threats.
France’s consumer watchdog known as DGCCRF said late on Saturday it spotted the dolls on Shein along with several other pornographic items such as adult-looking sex dolls, and reported the matter to judicial authorities. Shein pulled childlike sex dolls from its marketplace on Sunday.
Shein is set to open its first ever brick-and-mortar shop in BHV department store in central Paris on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro and Sudip Kar-GuptaEditing by Ros Russell, Helen Reid and Richard Chang)
