In November, several French ministers, a bevy of TV cameras and an army of customs officers set up camp at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris to conduct a very public inspection of the contents of thousands of packages sent to France by fast-fashion giant Shein.
“In order to put a stop to a system that is clearly non-compliant with our standards and our tax laws, we need to have proof,” budget minister Amélie de Montchalin said at the time. Some 300,000 packages containing half a million items were eventually searched, with a quarter found to violate French or EU standards.
The theatrical display took place at the height of the French government’s stand-off with the Chinese-founded platform. Shein had opened its first permanent physical shop in the country at the beloved central Paris department store BHV the day before, attracting both queues of shoppers and protesters bearing signs that read “Shame on Shein” and “Protect children, not Shein”.