In recent years, in addition to the well-known sites AliExpress and Gearbest, another Chinese e-commerce site has made space: Wish† Considered low-end compared to other portals, the site was subject to one sanction announced today by the French Directorate-General for Competitionconsumption and anti-fraud, the DGCCRF.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs reported as follows:We tested 140 products on the site and most of them were non-compliant, even dangerous”† This is the case for 95% of the toys tested by the authority, which were found to be non-compliant, while 45% were easily dangerous due to “small parts that come off”. As for electronic devices, 95% of the tested devices were non-compliant and 90% were hazardous.
It will disappear from Google and Bing
The DGCCRF has decided to refer Wish to France. Specifically, the website will no longer be visible on search engines from France as indicated by the DGCCRF in a press release:
The DGCCRF was asked to instruct major search engines to stop displaying the Wish e-commerce site and its application in order to better protect consumers.
However, that doesn’t mean Wish will no longer be available to French users. In fact, this fine does not prohibit the purchase of products on Wish, it prohibits them from accessing them from their browser. The site is therefore not blocked, but simply no longer indexed by the search results of Google and Bing. “Blocking the name and banning full access to the French website would be the ultimate sanction”†
In short, it is one of the first cases of its kind in Europe and perhaps the beginning of something much bigger…