France: EU needs option to delist platforms from Google

France is urging the European Commission to take tougher action against online shopping platforms like Shein and Temu if they fail to follow the rules. According to the French government, the EU should have the option to delist such companies from search engines like Google as a sanction. Both consumer safety and fair competition are at stake.

Trade Minister Véronique Louwagie outlined France’s position this week in a letter to European Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath. The letter, seen by Le Figaro, calls for stronger powers to deal with platforms that do not follow the rules.

Growing risks

Chinese platform companies are said to ignore safety regulations and compete on an uneven playing field. The minister emphasized “the growing risks to the protection of economic interests and consumer safety”. The European Commission should therefore be able to take or facilitate unprecedentedly tough measures against the platforms, such as removing them from search engines. The call is “necessary and urgent”, writes Véronique Louwagie. “We must act quickly.”

The minister calls her appeal ‘necessary and urgent’

Being delisted from Google and other search engines would be a huge blow to the Chinese companies in question. Le Figaro notes that French consumers could end up paying more if they no longer come across the low-priced items in their product searches.

Set of proposals

Brussels has been keeping a close eye on Chinese ecommerce platform companies for some time. This summer, the European Parliament adopted a set of proposals to curb the influx of unsafe or illegal products into the EU. One of these is the removal of the current customs duty exemption for products worth less than 150 euros. There are also plans to introduce a new fixed fee of 2 euros on parcels from outside the European Union.