Resale site removes listings for stolen French goods amid protests

The second-hand online marketplace, Vinted, has removed listings of stolen French goods and stepped up checks on “suspicious” adverts, as the country’s authorities seek to prevent goods stolen during riots from being sold online.

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Vinted says its teams have taken “immediate action to identify and remove listings linked to the looting,” following a weekend of unrest that saw shops ransacked across France, with the cost of property damage and theft estimated to be several hundred million dollars.

“The sale of stolen goods, or soliciting them, is strictly prohibited on Vinted, and we have zero tolerance for it,” the company said in a statement, noting that it had “stepped up monitoring of suspicious listings.”

Accounts found to have breached its rules could face permanent bans, Vinted said, adding that it is working with law enforcement and French authorities to “detect and counter emerging risks and malicious behaviour.”

The response comes as the French government increases scrutiny of online marketplaces following reports that goods stolen during Saturday’s unrest were being offered for sale online.

Serge Papin, France’s small businesses minister, said on ​X that authorities had called a meeting Monday with online marketplace operators and officials ​from the interior and justice ministries.

On Tuesday, he said the government had obtained commitments from platforms to detect and remove ads for stolen items, and was also monitoring sales itself, warning that anyone selling stolen goods would be tracked down and prosecuted.

Major retailers including luxury groups such as Louis Vuitton and Rolex and beauty retailer Sephora were caught up in the violence, Reuters reported.

Sephora said several of its stores in France had been ransacked, with employees facing “violence, fear and great tension.”

In a statement posted on LinkedIn, the company’s EMEA president, Catherine Spindler, said it had decided to close all its stores at 5pm Saturday and keep its city-center locations closed the following day, for the safety of staff and customers.

“The strength of a company is not its stores or its windows. It is the women and men who keep it alive,” the post reads.

Luxury fashion brand Burberry also confirmed that its store on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris was temporarily closed while it assessed the situation.

The emergence of suspected looted goods on resale platforms presents another challenge for retailers already dealing with damage to their stores and disruption to their businesses.

Vinted prohibits the sale of stolen goods and relies on a range of checks, including reports from retailers and users, to identify suspicious listings.

Founded in Lithuania in 2008, Vinted has grown into one of Europe’s largest second-hand marketplaces. France, the UK and Italy are among its biggest markets, according to Reuters.