On protecting EU consumers against the practices of certain e-commerce platforms: the case of child-like sex dolls, weapons and other illegal products and material

B100504/2025

European Parliament resolution on protecting EU consumers against the practices of certain e-commerce platforms: the case of child-like sex dolls, weapons and other illegal products and material

(2025/2971(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the statements by the Council and the Commission of 12 November 2025 on protecting EU consumers against the practices of certain e-commerce platforms: the case of child-like sex dolls, weapons and other illegal products and material,

– having regard to Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union, and Articles 4, 6 and 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

– having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular Articles 1, 7, 24 and 38 thereof,

– having regard to Directive 2011/93/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (GDPR),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2017/2394 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on market surveillance and compliance of products,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market for Digital Services (Digital Services Act) (DSA),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2023/988 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 on general product safety,

– having regard to Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market and amending Council Directive 84/450/EEC, Directives 97/7/EC, 98/27/EC and 2002/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (‘Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’),

– having regard to Directive 2011/93/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography,

– having regard to Council Directive 91/477/EEC of 18 June 1991 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the protection of children is one of the fundamental principles of a civilised society;

B. whereas Article 24 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights states that ‘children shall have the right to such protection and care as is necessary for their well-being’ and that ‘in all actions relating to children, whether taken by public authorities or private institutions, the child’s best interests must be a primary consideration’;

C. whereas the manufacture and marketing of sex dolls resembling children reflects an intrinsic paedocriminal intent, in that they are designed to simulate and trivialise sexual acts involving children; whereas their mere existence constitutes a form of child pornography and a trivialisation of sexual crimes committed against minors;

D. whereas Article 2 of Directive 2011/93/EU provides that the word ‘child pornography’ means: ‘(i) any material that visually depicts a child engaged in real or simulated sexually explicit conduct; (ii) any depiction of the sexual organs of a child for primarily sexual purposes; (iii) any material that visually depicts any person appearing to be a child engaged in real or simulated sexually explicit conduct or any depiction of the sexual organs of any person appearing to be a child, for primarily sexual purposes; or (iv) realistic images of a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct or realistic images of the sexual organs of a child, for primarily sexual purposes’;

E. whereas on 1 November 2025, the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), acting as a market surveillance authority, reported to the competent judicial and administrative authorities the presence on SHEIN, a major online marketplace operating within the single market, of prohibited products, including child-like sex dolls of a paedopornographic nature and bladed weapons such as knuckledusters and machetes;

F. whereas, since then, the same authority has also notified the competent judicial and administrative bodies that other platforms, including AliExpress and Joom, were placing on the market sex dolls of a paedopornographic nature, and that platforms such as Wish, eBay, Temu and Amazon were selling illegal products, including bladed weapons and medicines, or were failing to comply with obligations to prevent minors from accessing pornographic content; whereas on 11 November 2025, the Swedish children’s rights organisation ChildX filed a complaint against three online trading platforms, including Amazon, for marketing similar products in Sweden;

G. whereas on 30 October 2025, an investigation carried out by four consumer protection organisations from several Member States, namely France, Denmark, Germany and Belgium, revealed that 73 % of items (USB chargers, toys for children under three years of age and jewellery) purchased on SHEIN and 65 % on Temu do not comply with EU safety requirements, and that one in four items tested presents a clear danger to users and exposes them in particular to risks of fire, suffocation or contact with toxic substances;

H. whereas in 2024, 4.6 billion parcels worth less than EUR 150 were imported into the EU, 91 % of which came from Chinese e-commerce platforms, compared to 1.9 billion in 2023, more than double in one year; whereas around 90 % of these products are not compliant, and two-thirds of that 90 % are considered dangerous;

I. whereas online platforms can circumvent national systems through the use of VPNs, the opening of warehouses on European territory or the logistical fragmentation of shipments, making customs and tax controls extremely difficult; whereas this proves once again the difficulty of verifying the conformity of products imported by non-European platforms, where the line between third-party sellers and platform operators often remains unclear;

J. whereas the large-scale sale of imported products at very low prices results from an unregulated opening of the European market, deindustrialisation and the absence of effective trade protections, and leads to unfair competition with economic operators in the EU who are subject to strict regulatory requirements and obligations;

K. whereas people from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, including low-income families and children, are more exposed to the risks posed by illegal, non-compliant, counterfeit or dangerous products due to their lower prices and aggressive advertising practices;

L. whereas the DSA imposes an obligation of due diligence and cooperation on platforms, but recent scandals demonstrate that these obligations are insufficiently enforced and do not prevent the circulation of illegal or dangerous products, particularly those that threaten the safety of children;

M. whereas numerous investigations were opened many months ago by the Commission under the DSA;

N. whereas these platforms, most of which are established in Ireland, take advantage of the economic freedoms of the single market while externalising their responsibilities, in particular through the use of third-party sellers based outside the EU;

O. whereas Article 8 GDPR sets out a specific framework for the protection of minors’ data, requiring dual consent ̶̶̶– from the minor and the holder of parental authority – for any processing of personal data concerning a child under 16 years of age, and that this requirement aims in particular to protect minors against aggressive commercial strategies and practices exploiting their vulnerability;

P. whereas complaints have been filed against some of these platforms, which are accused of illegally transferring the personal data of European users;

Q. whereas Article 25 of Directive 2011/93/EU on ‘Measures against websites containing or disseminating child pornography’ provides that ‘Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the prompt removal of web pages containing or disseminating child pornography hosted in their territory and to endeavour to obtain the removal of such pages hosted outside their territory’ and that ‘Member States may take measures to block access to web pages containing or disseminating child pornography towards the Internet users within their territory’;

R. whereas the protection of minors requires, first and foremost, the mobilisation of parents and families, and of education systems and public authorities; whereas platforms and websites cannot use children or their images, nor expose them to paedocriminal risks;

S. whereas parental control devices are an essential tool for protecting children in the digital environment, but their effectiveness remains limited and their implementation marginal;

T. whereas the protection of minors online must respect the principles of proportionality, transparency and data security, and must by no means lead to constant or disproportionate surveillance;

U. whereas the fight against child sexual abuse cannot justify disproportionate infringements of the right to privacy and of the confidentiality of correspondence, as illustrated by the ‘Chat Control’ proposal, which would allow for the preventive scanning of the private communications of all EU citizens, without regard for Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which states that ‘everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications’; whereas the protection of minors requires targeted and effective measures, based on the accountability of online marketplaces and the suppression of child pornography products and content, rather than on the generalised surveillance of law-abiding people;

1. Condemns, in absolute terms, the design, importation, possession, promotion and marketing of child pornography products depicting minors;

Insufficient implementation of the current legal framework

2. Denounces the structural lack of control, vigilance and accountability of certain platforms operating in the single market, and the slow response of monitoring mechanisms, particularly in Member States where such platforms are established; notes that the repetition of these shortcomings over several years demonstrates a systemic problem in the regulation of online commerce at EU level;

3. Recalls the current framework provided for by Regulation (EU) 2017/2394, Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 and Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on market surveillance and e-commerce; underlines that market surveillance authorities face difficulties in applying this framework to online platforms, in particular those from non-EU countries;

4. Specifically recalls the powers conferred on market surveillance authorities, in particular those provided for in Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020, such as the possibility of taking the required measures when an economic operator fails to take the necessary corrective measures or when non-compliance or risk persists, including the power to prohibit or restrict the making available of a product on the market, to order the withdrawal or recall of a product, or to order a hosting service provider to remove, deactivate or restrict access to an online service;

5. Calls for the swift and effective implementation of the monitoring and sanctioning measures provided for in the current legal framework when online platforms offer or sell illegal, dangerous or non-compliant products, in order to guarantee a high level of consumer protection, paying particular attention to minors, who constitute a highly vulnerable group requiring enhanced safeguards, in particular to combat child sexual abuse; considers that these measures remain insufficient, and that actions such as the temporary, or even permanent, suspension of the website concerned should be easily and swiftly implemented, through administrative or judicial means, at national level and at an early stage in the procedure;

6. Stresses, in this regard, the need to broaden the derogations from the principle of the Member State of origin for reasons linked to combating child pornography and the sale of illegal, dangerous, non-compliant or counterfeit products;

7. Urges the Commission, in the implementation of the DSA, to give priority to market surveillance, and to combating illegal, dangerous, non-compliant or counterfeit products;

8. Supports the opening of investigations by EU consumer protection authorities, within the framework of the Consumer Protection Cooperation network and under the DSA, targeting non-EU online platforms, namely Temu, SHEIN and AliExpress; calls for these investigations to be concluded quickly before the end of 2025; insists that the implementation of commitments made by online platforms should be closely monitored;

Protection of minors

9. Stresses that unintentional or early access to pornographic content, including through algorithmic suggestions, can have serious consequences for the psychological, emotional and sexual development of children and adolescents; considers that platforms hosting or distributing such content should be subject to strict access control obligations and be required to put in place mitigation measures, in order to effectively prevent minors from being exposed to it;

10. Recognises the diverse perspectives among the Member States regarding appropriate age limits for access to online social media platforms, video-sharing services and AI companions; stresses that establishing digital age limits remains within the remit of Member States; calls for any such age limits to be determined in consultation with child development experts and psychologists; recognises that while a coordinated European approach regarding an age limit of 13 could be beneficial, the Member States should retain flexibility to set appropriate thresholds based on expert guidance and their cultural, educational and parental contexts, with provisions allowing for minors to access platforms with parental or guardian authorisation; stresses that such measures would serve to support parents in managing their children’s digital presence and ensuring age-appropriate online engagement;

11. Stresses that failure to comply with the GDPR and the requirement of dual consent in the processing of minors’ data must result in proportionate and effective sanctions, including a ban on digital activity for repeat offenders;

12. Calls for the implementation of effective mechanisms enabling users to explicitly express their disinterest in certain content, particularly content of a sexual or violent nature, and insists that these tools must lead to a real and binding adaptation of the content streams offered, in accordance with the wishes of the user and the need to protect minors;

13. Requests that all digital devices or services placed on the market within the EU be equipped, by default, with a parental control mechanism that is compliant with the GDPR and the principles of proportionality, transparency and data security, guaranteeing the protection of minors’ privacy and the integrity and security of their personal data, and calibrated according to the minor’s age and level of maturity;

14. Stresses that online commerce platforms, device manufacturers and service providers must provide a clear option within their settings that allows parents to disable unwanted content and tailor their children’s digital experience, and that this option must be presented in an easily understandable manner, without default settings being imposed;

15. Recalls that protecting children means, first and foremost, preventing the distribution and marketing of child pornography and dismantling criminal networks, and not monitoring the private conversations of millions of citizens;

Market protection and customs measures

16. Stresses that EU manufacturers and retailers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, face unfair competition from non-EU platforms that allow non-EU manufacturers and their non-compliant products to easily enter the EU market by circumventing applicable regulations and standards; underlines that, while EU manufacturers must comply with strict safety, environmental and quality rules, many low-value products sold through these platforms escape controls by customs and market surveillance authorities due to the volume and manner in which they are shipped into the EU; expresses concern that some of these non-EU platforms and sellers are deliberately exploiting this loophole, allowing non-compliant imports to enter the EU market unchecked, thereby penalising European manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, undermining their competitiveness and capacity to innovate, and creating a high risk of bankruptcy;

17. Stresses, in this regard, that when the manufacturer is established outside the EU and no importer, authorised representative or order fulfilment service provider can be identified, it is necessary for online marketplaces to provide adequate and proportionate remedies to consumers in the event of non-compliance with the EU legislative framework, notably Article 22 GPSR;

18. Recalls that, under the DSA, online marketplaces are required to trace traders and are obliged to comply with ‘compliance by design’ rules in order to increase overall traceability; stresses that it is necessary for online platforms to take all possible measures to ensure the full traceability of sellers and products, by publishing only advertisements that contain verified information on product compliance; believes that the revision of the EU’s customs code should make online marketplaces much more accountable and ensure that they monitor the legality and compliance of products sold or offered for sale;

19. Stresses that information on responsible economic operators in the EU under the GSPR, acting on behalf of traders or platforms established in non-EU countries, is often incomplete or incorrect; notes that even when such information exists, the responsible person in the EU may escape accountability, particularly when acting as an authorised representative; is concerned that market surveillance authorities face major difficulties in contacting these non-EU traders and enforcing EU law, and that, even when contact is made, sanctions are often impossible to impose; insists that strengthening the liability regime for representatives must be a key priority in the upcoming legislative revisions, in order to reinforce controls and improve consumer redress;

20. Welcomes the recent decision of the Council to accelerate, without waiting until 2028, the elimination of the customs exemption threshold which currently exempts parcels entering the EU worth less than EUR 150 from customs duties;

21. Calls for the implementation of genuine protective measures, such as high customs tariffs, to protect the EU market from the influx of products imported from non-EU e-commerce platforms, which are too often illegal, dangerous, non-compliant, or counterfeit;

22. Recalls that the EU has both the right and the obligation to protect its market against economic dumping, notably through tariffs at entry, reinforced customs controls and a coherent trade policy to address the influx of very low-cost products from non-EU countries; stresses the need to step up checks on imports that fail to meet EU standards, especially in the absence of reciprocity mechanisms, such as mirror clauses, between the EU and non-EU countries; notes that this lack of reciprocity enables the placing on the internal market of products manufactured under conditions that do not meet the EU’s safety, environmental and social requirements;

23. Proposes an extension of the provisions relating to the digital product passport, coupled with early conformity checks for all imported products before they are placed on the single market; considers that products lacking detailed and clear information about their origin and that have not undergone conformity checks should be automatically excluded from online marketplaces and should not be shipped from their country of origin;

24. Calls for the adoption of a clear, comprehensive and uniform ban throughout the EU on the manufacture, import, warehousing, online distribution and delivery of any sexual device reproducing a child or depicting a minor in a sexualised context, including when it involves artificial objects or simulated representations;

25. Demands that e-commerce platforms be held criminally and financially responsible for products offered online by non-EU sellers, and that repeat offences result in dissuasive financial penalties, temporary suspension of activity in the EU, and the blocking or withdrawal of their authorisation to operate on the single market;

26. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.