Click to view full size

France’s gov­ern­ment said Wednes­day it has start­ed a pro­ce­dure to sus­pend ac­cess to Shein’s on­line plat­form un­til the com­pa­ny proves that its con­tent con­forms with French law, af­ter a a con­tro­ver­sy over sex dolls with child­like fea­tures that were found list­ed on the fast-fash­ion gi­ant’s web­site.

The de­ci­sion, an­nounced in a terse state­ment by the Fi­nance Min­istry, came on the same day Shein opened its first per­ma­nent store in Paris in­side one of the city’s most icon­ic de­part­ment stores.

The open­ing drew crowds of shop­pers as well as pro­test­ers at the BHV Marais, in­clud­ing a small group of demon­stra­tors wav­ing an­ti-Shein signs who briefly dis­rupt­ed the open­ing day be­fore they were es­cort­ed out by se­cu­ri­ty.