France calls for a boycott on Wish

In a joint statement, several French ministers call for a boycott on Wish. The biggest search engines and comparison apps in France should remove Wish from their search results. The group of ministers are calling for this boycott due to the amount of counterfeit products on the marketplace.

Wish is a popular marketplace based in the US. It supports 500.000 merchant partners as well as over 300 million users. Most products listed on the website and app are from Chinese manufacturers or merchants.

‘Dangerous products’

The statement calls for a delisting of Wish in French search engines, and was written this week, after investigations done on several online operators. The French General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) published a report on Wish last year.

In a sample of 140 products, 62% of jewelry items were dangerous.

Out of a sample of 140 products, 45 percent of the toys, 90 percent of electrical goods and 62 percent of jewelry items were dangerous. Strings of outdoor lights and power adapters could cause electric shocks, animal toys carry choking hazards and some jewelry items contained dangerous chemicals.

‘Products remain on website’

The report also noted that Wish removed items after being identified as dangerous within 24 hours, but they often remained on the website under different names. “To protect consumers from dangerous products sold on Wish, we have requested the delisting of its website and mobile application”, tweeted Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

‘We are starting legal action.’

According to Wish, it isn’t legally obligated to conduct controls on the 150 million products sold through its platform. Yet, the company says it has invested in measures to promote higher quality products. “We are starting legal action to challenge what we consider an illegal and disproportionate act”, Wish said in a statement.

The French government said that it has already issued Wish with a two-month ultimatum in July to stop misleading consumers about the risks associated with some products. The actions that Wish has taken since then, haven’t been effective enough.

EU is finalizing European Digital Services Act

The boycott comes at a time when the European Union is finalizing a draft of the European Digital Services Act, which is designed to hold technology firms to task. The move is supposed to send a strong signal to Wish, as well as other online companies.