The EU is to open a formal investigation into the Chinese retailer Shein over multiple suspected breaches of European laws including the sale of childlike sex dolls and weapons.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it had launched the inquiry after demanding information from the fast-growing company last year.

A senior EU official also pointed to reports of clothes, cosmetics, electronic products that were not compliant with EU law.

The investigation will examine three areas of Shein’s service that have given cause for concern.

Apart from the sale of illegal products, it will also look at the “addictive design of the service Shein is providing”, an EU official said, including bonus points programmes, gamification and rewards “that may lead to a risk of users’ mental well being”.

The investigation will also look at Shein’s recommender systems that may overwhelm users with suggestions of products to buy.

“We have a suspicion that the system of Shein is not built to avoid the sale of illegal products,” the official said on Tuesday. “Illegal products? There is still a lot there so something is probably not working.”

This is the second investigation launched into the addictive design of an online retail platform, after an inquiry launched into Temu in late 2024.

The EU also said that Shein’s recommender systems were opaque and might not meet the transparency requirements of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

Under the rules, the recommender must “provide one easily available alternative which is not based on profiling”. What the EU found in its preliminary investigation was that Shein only explained “in a very general manner” how its recommender system worked.

Shein said it took its obligations under the DSA seriously, and has always cooperated fully with the European Commission and Coimisiún na Meán – the Irish regulator that will lead the investigation – and would continue to do so. It added it had taken steps to limit harms.

“Over the last few months, we have continued to invest significantly in measures to strengthen our compliance with the DSA. These include comprehensive systemic-risk assessments and mitigation frameworks, enhanced protections for younger users, and ongoing work to design our services in ways that promote a safe and trusted user experience,” Shein said.

The European investigation into Shein comes months after the French government backed off from a push for a three-month full suspension of Shein’s services after illegal products were found on the site.

The French investigation is looking at the legality of the products on sale rather than the systemic approach of the sales platform.

In a Paris court hearing in December, a lawyer for the state said Shein must put controls in place on its website, including age verification and filtering, to ensure minors cannot access pornographic content.

The French government had in November threatened to suspend Shein amid controversy over its sale of childlike sex dolls.

The announcement came as Shein opened its first bricks-and-mortar store, in Paris, amid a heavy police presence.

EU officials said the investigation was completely separate to the inquiries in France and other appraisals under way by consumer protection authorities on products that breach trading standards rules nationally.

“What happened in France is a piece of the puzzle but we are looking at the system at large. We are not focusing only on what happened in France,” said the senior official.

The EU first opened its request for information on how the platform complies or does not comply with the DSA in April 2024. It has now concluded that Shein believes its services are at “low risk” of breaching EU law. However, the EU argues Shein is at “high risk” of selling products that breach EU laws.

Last year the EU’s justice commissioner Michael McGrath said he was “shocked” by the toxicity and danger of some products on Shein.

He said consumer authorities had found baby soothers that could cause choking, clothes with chemicals banned in the EU and items such as children’s sweat pants with waist ties were long enough to pose trip hazards.

The EU said Shein was cooperating with the European Commission and the new investigation did not mean the service would ultimately be banned, but a block on it selling in Europe remained a “last resort” option if the company did not comply with EU laws.

The Paris judicial court acknowledged a “serious harm to public order”, but found the sale of the items in question had been “sporadic”. It noted that Shein had removed the illegal products.

The court nevertheless issued an “injunction” to Shein not to resume selling “sexual products that could constitute pornographic content, without implementing age-verification measures”.