The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, the Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs Alain Griset as well as the Secretary of State in charge of Digital Transition and Electronic Communications Cédric O “Order major search engine and mobile app store managers to de-list the Wish e-commerce site and its mobile app”, they announced in a statement released Wednesday, November 24.
“One week before Black Friday and one month before the end of the year holidays, this decision illustrates the government’s action to protect consumers and effectively fight against unfair competition from economic operators”, declared in the press release Bruno Le Maire.
“These players are flouting product safety regulations. This is unacceptable.”
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recoveryin a press release
This decision is, according to the government, “unique in Europe”. According to the ministers and the secretary of state, it aims “to protect consumers and put an end to Wish’s breaches of the safety obligations of the products it sells”, explain the ministers in their press release.
This injunction was decided by the ministers concerned following an investigation opened in September 2020 by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF). It covers the security of products sold and the business practices of the Wish platform.
During this survey, more than 140 products sold on Wish were analyzed. “The investigation revealed the sale of a large number of non-compliant and dangerous products, with particularly high levels of dangerousness for certain product families”, explains the Ministry of the Economy. Are particularly concerned toys (95% non-compliant, including 45% dangerous), electrical appliances (95% non-compliant, including 90% dangerous) and costume jewelry (62% dangerous). It was also noted during this investigation that “Wish is not performing product withdrawals and recalls satisfactorily, as it is required by its status as a distributor.”.
In July, the DGCCRF therefore ordered Wish to comply within two months. It is following the non-compliance with this injunction that the ministers ask the main search engines and mobile application stores to dereference the Wish e-commerce site and its application. “as long as this operator has not brought itself into compliance, in order to best protect consumers”.
Concretely, consumers making online purchases will no longer be able to be directed to the Wish site when they search for products, since the risks of purchasing non-compliant and dangerous products on it are significant.