The European Commission launched a formal investigation into Chinese online retailer Shein on Tuesday over the sale of illegal products and the potentially addictive design of its platform, marking a significant escalation of regulatory pressure under the bloc’s Digital Services Act.
The inquiry, which will be led in part by Coimisiún na Meán, Ireland’s digital services coordinator, centres on three areas: Shein’s systems for preventing the sale of illegal goods including child-like sex dolls and weapons, the transparency of its recommender systems, and gamification features that regulators fear may harm users’ mental wellbeing.
The investigation follows pressure from France, whose consumer watchdog discovered child-like sex dolls on Shein’s website in November, prompting calls for the platform to be suspended. Shein subsequently removed all sex dolls from its global site and banned the relevant sellers. A Paris court later issued an injunction requiring the company to implement age-verification measures to prevent minors from accessing age-restricted content.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, said in a statement that “the Digital Services Act keeps shoppers safe, protects their wellbeing and empowers them with information about the algorithms they are interacting with. We will assess whether Shein is respecting these rules and their responsibility.”
European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told the BBC that Shein had been “very cooperative” with previous requests for information, but said the Commission was concerned about the opaque nature of its recommendation algorithms. “You don’t know how they’re being designed [and] you’re not in control of what you see,” he said.
Shein said it would continue to engage with the Commission and pointed to steps already taken. “Over the last few months, we have continued to invest significantly in measures to strengthen our compliance with the DSA. These include comprehensive systemic-risk assessments and mitigation frameworks, enhanced protections for younger users, and ongoing work to design our services in ways that promote a safe and trusted user experience,” a company spokesperson said.
The Commission sent three formal requests for information to Shein in June 2024, February 2025, and November 2025. The most recent asked specifically about the sale of child-like sex dolls and internal processes for preventing minors from accessing inappropriate content.
Shein reported $38 billion in global sales for 2024. Companies found in breach of the DSA face fines of up to 6 per cent of their global annual turnover. The Commission stressed that opening proceedings does not prejudge the outcome, and that a ban on Shein operating in Europe remains only a last resort.
The probe mirrors an earlier investigation into Temu, Shein’s Chinese rival, which was charged last year with breaching the DSA by failing to properly assess risks from illegal products on its platform.
