Online marketplace Wish makes a comeback in France

PARIS — U.S. online marketplace Wish is available in France again at the state's request, a year and a half after it ordered the platform's delisting over unsafe products.

In November 2021, the government announced with much fanfare that the California-based platform would be removed from search engines and app stores for flouting consumer-protection rules and failing to reply to the requests coming from the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF).

At the time, French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire had also threatened Google and Apple with legal action if they didn't comply.

The e-commerce platform is now back on Google Search, app store Google Play and French search engine Qwant. “We received a notification from the DGCCRF informing us that the November 23, 2021 injunction ordering us to remove Wish from Search and Play is lifted,” a spokesperson for Google told POLITICO.

The DGCCRF’s decision to order the online marketplace’s re-listing on search engines and app stores was taken "after more than a year of discussion with Wish, with regard to the commitments made," a member of French Minister Olivia Grégoire’s team told POLITICO. Grégoire oversees the DGCCRF. 

The platform has set up "withdrawal and recall procedures, and a limitation of similar products to those recognized as non-compliant and dangerous," the French official explained, adding that "the DGCCRF will be very attentive to Wish's commitments." 

The DGCCRF didn't reply to requests for comment in time for publication.

The platform's parent company ContextLogic tried unsuccessfully for months in courts to overturn the DGCCRF's delisting decision. On Friday, the online marketplace was slapped with a €3 million fine for misleading commercial practices, according to L'Informé.

Wish is known for selling very cheap products, a lot of them coming from China.

This article has been updated