Asian discount clothing giant Shein has been fined a massive 150 million euros in France for failing to comply with legislation on cookies, the French privacy watchdog Cnil announced on Wednesday.

The Cnil, which has also imposed a record fine of 325 million euros on Google for similar grievances, denounces the fact that these computer trackers had been deposited on the devices of Internet users who had visited the Shein site without their consent, or without respecting their choice or informing them correctly.

These are the two biggest penalties ever imposed by the Cnil, with the exception of a 150 million euro fine imposed on Google in 2022, also on the subject of cookies.

The French data protection watchdog justified the exceptional nature of the fine imposed on Shein by the fact that the legislation on which this decision is based is already in force, in particular the French Data Protection Act (Loi Informatique et Libertés), which the company could not ignore.

“Since 2020,” Cnil’s restricted committee “has on numerous occasions sanctioned organizations for similar breaches, making its decisions public,” stressed the institution in a press release.

This is a colossal sanction, given the very high number of users potentially affected – an average of 12 million French people every month – argued the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (Cnil).

Shein complied “during the course of the procedure,” the Cnil pointed out.

The company “firmly contests” this decision “and will lodge an appeal with the Council of State and the Court of Justice of the European Union,” it told AFP.

“We consider the fine to be totally disproportionate, given the nature of the alleged grievances, our current compliance, and the proactive corrective measures we have put in place,” said Shein.

“The severity of the penalty appears to be motivated by political considerations rather than by a fair and balanced application of the regulations,” the company judges. Recalling that it has “fully cooperated with the Cnil” since August 2023, Shein says it regrets that “no warning was ever issued” prior to the “formal notice.”

The brand, which stands out for its extremely low prices, profusion of SKUs and aggressive marketing, has been booming in France and Europe in recent years.

However, it has attracted the wrath of human rights and environmental associations, trade players and the authorities. Accused in turn of environmental pollution, deceptive business practices, unfair competition, and undignified labor, Shein symbolizes, according to its detractors, all the ills of “ultra fast fashion.”

The company with sales of $23 billion (by 2022) is the target of a proposed French law aimed at regulating ephemeral fashion, notably through an advertising ban, financial penalties, and an obligation to make consumers aware of the environmental impact of their clothing.

At the beginning of July, the platform was fined 40 million euros for misleading commercial practices by France’s Repression des Fraudes, for, among other things, marking up certain prices before applying a discount.

Paris, Sept 3, 2025 (AFP)