The Asian e-commerce company Shein has pledged to cooperate with French prosecutors who have opened an investigation into the sale of childlike sex dolls on its platform.
“We will cooperate fully with the judicial authorities,” Shein’s spokesperson in France, Quentin Ruffat, told RMC radio, adding that the company was prepared to share names of those who had bought such dolls.
“We will be completely transparent with the authorities. If they ask us to do so, we will comply,” he said.
Shein announced on Monday that it would ban sex dolls from sale on its sites after French authorities condemned the company for featuring some that resembled children.
In a statement, the company said it was imposing a “total ban on sex doll-type products” and had deleted all listings and images linked to them. A spokesperson told the AFP news agency the ban applied globally.
Shein’s chief executive, Donald Tang, said: “These publications came from third-party vendors but I take personal responsibility.”
Just days before Shein was due to open its first physical store in Paris, France’s finance minister threatened to ban the retailer from the country if it continued selling the childlike dolls.
The Paris prosecutors’ office said it had opened investigations against Shein and other online retailers over the sale of sex dolls. France’s anti-fraud unit reported on Saturday that Shein was selling “childlike” dolls of a likely pornographic nature.
The French daily Le Parisien published a photo of one of the dolls sold on the platform. The pictured doll measured around 80cm (30 inches) in height and held a teddy bear.
Shortly after the fraud watchdog’s statement, Shein announced that the dolls had been withdrawn from its platform and it had launched an internal inquiry. Soon after, it announced the ban on sex dolls.
Shein said it was setting up a dedicated team to ensure the “integrity” of content on the sales platform.
Shein is due on Wednesday to open its first physical store in the world inside the prestigious BHV Marais department store in central Paris, a move that has sparked outrage in France.
Frédéric Merlin, the director of the company that owns BHV, said selling the childlike dolls was “unacceptable”, but on Monday he defended his decision to allow Shein into the department store.
“Only clothes and items conceived directly by Shein for BHV will be sold in store,” he said.
Shein, a Singapore-based company that was founded in China, has faced criticism over working conditions at its factories and the environmental impact of its ultra-fast-fashion business model.
France has already fined Shein three times in 2025 for a total of 191m euros ($220m). Those sanctions were imposed for failing to comply with online cookie legislation, false advertising, misleading information and not declaring the presence of plastic microfibres in its products.
The European Commission is also investigating Shein over risks linked to allegedly illegal products, while EU lawmakers have approved legislation aimed at curbing the environmental impact of fast fashion.
