Shein: heavily criticised, yet millions of customers remain

Paris - Having become the symbol of ultra-fast fashion in recent years, Shein is preparing for its stock market debut in Hong Kong in September. The company has found itself targeted by multiple European and French initiatives aimed at regulating its operations.

Investigations, sanctions and controversies have not, however, prevented the Asian giant from establishing itself in the low-cost online fashion landscape. Millions of its parcels are delivered to customers across the continent.

At the heart of controversy

Shein, founded in China in 2012, long developed its business exclusively online before opening its very first permanent brick and mortar store in November 2025. A few days before the inauguration in Paris, the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) announced it had discovered the sale of child-like sex dolls and prohibited weapons on the platform.

An investigation was opened in Paris. This led the French government to refer the matter to the European Commission last February under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European regulation governing digital services.

The partnership between the ultra-fast fashion giant and BHV, a historic Parisian department store, sparked a wave of outrage. Elected officials and NGO associations protested the reception given to the platform. It was accused of, among other things, causing the decline of clothing boutiques and failing to ensure decent working conditions at its production sites.

The company is also under scrutiny for its environmental impact. It mass-produces cheap clothing with constantly renewed collections, which involves the use of water, chemicals and plastic materials.

Shein's presence within BHV was a “strategic error”, the department store's management admitted in June.

Regulatory offensives

France, one of its main markets, has become one of the pioneering countries in regulating the platform's practices. After two and a half years of debate, Parliament definitively adopted a bill at the end of June aimed at curbing the rise of ephemeral fashion, with a measure focused on “ultra-fast fashion”.

In recent years, Shein has received several fines in France totalling over 210 million euros, including a record 40 million euros from the DGCCRF in early July. In Italy, the competition authority also fined the platform one million euros for misleading environmental claims.

Shein's shortcomings? These include false promotions; misleading information, particularly regarding the environment; and failures in product traceability, environmental labelling, withdrawal periods and delivery times. Shein considers the sanctions “manifestly disproportionate and discriminatory”.

An economic model that resists, despite taxes

France introduced a two euro tax on small parcels on March 1, 2026.

The major targeted platforms, such as Temu, Shein and AliExpress, quickly found a workaround. They send small packages to airport hubs in other European countries and then transport them to France by road.

The tax proved ineffective. Customs estimated its yield at 2.3 million euros per month, far from the 400 million euros projected for the year in the 2026 budget. This tax was suspended on July 1, in favour of a European customs duty of 3 euros per item type. If a parcel contains a T-shirt and a pair of shoes, the duty must be paid twice. If the package contains five, 10 or even 15 T-shirts and no other type of item, it will only be levied once.

Furthermore, it will be supplemented from November by “processing fees”, which will help finance customs services. The amount has not yet been set but could be as high as two euros per parcel.

The ultra-fast fashion giant is not perturbed by these measures. In 2025, the company reported a turnover of 41.8 billion dollars, delivered more than one billion orders worldwide and claims 273 million customers, including 23 million in France.

With its upcoming stock market launch in Hong Kong, Shein aims to finance its continued international growth.