With Black Friday just around the corner, France has sunk Wish after ordering that all its products be removed from search engines and that your iOS and Android apps disappear from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The decision comes from the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control, which after an investigation started in 2018, has determined, after analyzing 140 different products, that an important part of the items that Wish e-commerce sells, “can put the health of buyers at risk”.
France found that 90% of electrical appliances sold on Wish are dangerous
After a first investigation into the commercial practices of the Wish platform, the National Investigation Service (SNE) of the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) opened a second investigation into product safety in September 2020 sold on this platform, concluding that these are a risk to the health of the public.
The agency explained that the decisions are unique in Europe and “are intended to protect consumers and put an end to the breaches of Wish in terms of the safety of the products it sells.” He also points out that it is not only about the danger posed by the items on offer but also Wish has breached its obligation to withdraw the designated products multiple times as such in a maximum of 24 hours.
In France, Wish is the seventh marketplace by number of sales
The investigation has pointed to three specific groups of Wish products as particularly dangerous:
Toys: 45% of those analyzed were considered dangerous.
Electrical appliances: 90% were considered dangerous.
Costume jewelery: 62% were considered dangerous.
As a lot usually happens in this type of online stores, the authorities point out that in many cases the products are still offered under other names and even by the same sellers. They also highlight that in cases where one of these products is removed from the store, Wish does not clarify the reasons why it has stopped being sold and does not inform users of its danger.
France will maintain these measures until Wish complies with European legislation. The sanction could not fall at a worse time for the marketplace, which enjoys great popularity in the French country and just in the week of Black Friday.