Fast-fashion retailer Shein has been fined millions of euros by France’s antitrust agency following an investigation.
The Chinese ecommerce retailer was fined €40m (£34m), for alleged deceptive business practices, including offering misleading discounts.
This follows a nearly year-long investigation into Shein’s operations, as reported by Reuters.
The antitrust agency, which is in charge of consumer protection and competition, said the company that handles sales for the Shein brand, Infinite Style E-Commerce Co Ltd (ISEL), had misled customers about discounts. The company had accepted the fine.
The investigation was conducted across thousands of products on Shein’s French site between October 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023. It found that 57% of advertised deals were not actually offering a lower price.
A further 19% had less of a discount than advertised, while 11% actually rose in price.
Shein infringed a rule under French regulations, which states that the reference price for any discount is the lowest one given by a retailer during the 30 days before the offer.
The retailer is said to have broken that rule by not taking into account previous offers, and sometimes increasing the price before adding the discount.
The agency said its investigation showed that the company “deceived consumers about the authenticity of discounts they could benefit from”.
Shein said in a statement that the antitrust agency informed ISEL of breaches in relation to the reference price and environmental regulations in March 2024, and that the ISEL has taken action soon after and was committed to complying with regulations.
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