The European Commission on Thursday designated Chinese fashion app Shein as a Very Large Online Platform Under the Digital Services Act, subjecting it to more stringent regulations. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
April 26 (UPI) — Chinese-owned fashion app Shein must follow new stricter rules under the European Commission’s Digital Services Act after determining the app was large enough to fall under the legislation’s measures.
Shein, which serves as an online marketplace as well as a fashion app, has millions of visitors per month from Europe alone, comfortably qualifying it to abide by the more stringent DSA rules. Shein will have to provide external audits and risk assessments about illegal content.
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“Shein is a fashion online retailer with an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the European Union,” the European Commission said in a statement. “This user number, which Shein has communicated to the commission, is above the DSA threshold for designation as a [Very Large Online Platform].”
The online retailer had sold its own products until 2023 when it started offering products from third-party manufacturers from its newly created marketplace, leading to its growth. It moved its main offices to Singapore from China in 2021.
Some retailers, like Amazon and the European digital marketplace Zalando, are fighting the DSA’s tight regulations in court. opened
Earlier this week, the European Commission opened up an investigation into another Chinese-owned company, TikTok, for possible violations to the DSA. Regulators said TikTok did not provide research on risk assessment and mitigation efforts on TikTok Lite until after it was launched in France and Spain.