France plans e-commerce crackdown on China’s Temu, Shein

The French government has launched a new e-commerce strategy to curb the annual influx of around 1.5 billion parcels entering the country, half of which originate from China.

Under the plan, France will lobby the EU to end a €150 duty-free exemption from customs levies for e-commerce platforms, the government said in a statement. The current discussion on the customs reform is stalled in the Council.
China's two largest e-commerce platforms, Temu and Shein, are among the top ten most visited e-commerce websites in France, and the average value of an item bought on these platforms and imported into the country is €8, according to the French action plan.

Paris plans to target the largest foreign platforms, in particular through inspections by fraud control authorities. These parcels would also face controls from border security.

In future, products from the likes of Temu and Shein will be screened through a "360 control doctrine" and simultaneously analysed for product safety, labelling standards and environmental standards.

Until the duty-free exemption can pass at the EU level, the French government is preparing a flat-rate "management fee" that would apply to each parcel. However, for this to become operational, it needs to be coordinated at the European level, the government clarified.

The influx of cheap e-commerce packages from Chinese producers has been on the EU's radar for months. The Commission adopted an action plan in February and plans to assess its effectiveness after one year.

However, the Commission was criticised by a group of Scandinavian ministers last month for proposing measures that were too weak and lacked concrete solutions such as fines.(jp)