France is Trying to Ban Wish by Asking App Stores and Search Engines to Block its Apps and Website

[TheLostSwede]

Wish has become something of a phenomenon, in the sense that it has become Europe's go-to place for cheap gadgets, toys, clothing and more, most of which are delivered straight from the PRC to your front door. However, a lot of the products sold on Wish doesn't meet European safety regulations and now France's DGCCRF (direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes) or in English, the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, are going after Wish for selling substandard and even outright dangerous goods to French consumers.

There is clearly legit reasoning behind it all, as the DGCCRF ordered some 140 different products from Wish - of which most arrived directly from the PRC - and then proceeded to test them to see if they met European safety standards. Out of the 140 products, 45 percent were deemed outright dangerous, although when it came to electronic products, 90 percent were deemed dangerous and 95 percent were not certified for use in Europe. It's not clear how many of the products were electronic products though, which makes it a bit hard to judge how bad the situation really is.




Other products weren't quite as bad, but even on the accessory side, 62 percent of the products were considered dangerous. In all fairness to Wish, Amazon and other online shops where third parties can sell their products directly, are likely to have similar, if not quite as bad issues. Wish is said to be proactively removing sellers that are reported to be selling dangerous products, but apparently this wasn't quite good enough for the DGCCRF, as they feel Wish isn't taking earlier warnings seriously enough.

As such, the DGCCRF has decided to request that the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft block access to the Wish app, as well as remove Wish from search engines. This obviously only applies to French citizens for the time being, but as France is an EU nation, it's possible that an EU wide blockade of Wish could happen in the future. However, if Wish were to implement the changes the DGCCRF wants to see, the block of Wish to French customers would be removed.

However, in a statement provided by Wish to TechCrunch, it seems like the company doesn't feel that it's responsible to make sure its third party sellers' products meet European standards. Wish also seem to think that they already have a good enough mechanism for removing sellers of poor quality products. Overall, Wish is obviously not happy with what the DGCCRF is doing, as they're losing access to a fairly sizeable market. Time will tell what the long term effect of this disagreement will be, but if nothing else, it might make some more room for shipping other products from the PRC to France.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Solaris17]

I have never spoken to anyone that has ever got anything from wish that was as described or otherwise quality.

The website maybe only in my circles? Is a meme.

 

[Vayra86]

Burn em with fire

 

[Chrispy_]

You need to have lived under a rock to not know that Wish is basically an unregulated marketplace where scammers are in the majority and - with the added complications of language barriers and entirely incompatible legal systems - using it as a westerner is about as stupid as falling for a Nigerian prince email scam.

The chances of getting what you expect from Wish are vanishingly small even if you somehow don't get scammed; It is infamous.

 

[trparky]

I have never spoken to anyone that has ever got anything from wish that was as described or otherwise quality.

When you buy cheap crap, don't expect quality. It's exactly how I think when it comes to dollar stores. Sure, it's cheap in the short run but you have to ask yourself that if the quality is garbage, just how much have you saved?

You need to have lived under a rock to not know that Wish is basically a marketplace where scammers are in the majority and with the added complications of language barriers and entirely incompatibly legal systems, using it as a westerner is about as stupid as falling for a Nigerian 419 scam.

This.

 

[R0H1T]

about as stupid as falling for a Nigerian prince email scam.

It's a good thing people don't fall for that anymore then, oh wait

 

[trparky]

It's a good thing people don't fall for that anymore then, oh wait

It's generally the older people who fall for that kind of scam. I've always said that older people are far too trusting of others. It's the same thing in how people fall for Western Union scams.

 

[R0H1T]

It's generally the older people who fall for that kind of scam. I've always said that older people are far too trusting of others. It's the same thing in how people fall for Western Union scams.

I've never heard of this wish thing (site?) but looks like most people are wishing whatever they order is genuine, more hope than anything else really. That & often the great adage ~ penny wise pound foolish! Of course people trying to scam the elderly or the ill informed are generally the lowest of the low!

 

[trparky]

I've never heard of this wish thing (site?) but looks like most people are wishing whatever they order is genuine, more hope than anything else really. That & often the great adage ~ penny wise pound foolish! Of course people trying to scam the elderly or the ill informed are generally the lowest of the low!

I apply the old adage... If it's too good to be true, it probably is. A healthy dose of cynicism (or in my case, a whole lot of it) will do a lot of people some good.

 

[phanbuey]

If yall want to have an interesting read:
WISH ContextLogic Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class A — Stock Price and Discussion | Stocktwits

 

[Chrispy_]

It's a good thing people don't fall for that anymore then, oh wait

Scammers will prey on the gullible for as long as there are gullible people to prey on.

This is life, and not a trait exclusive to humanity but seen far and wide across almost all species on earth.

 

[R0H1T]

Scammers will prey on the gullible for as long as there are gullible people to prey on.

Yes but inherently you could argue there's a slight flaw or weakness in the ones being conned ~ like sometimes, though not always, trying to save money.

The explosion of the internet has also opened another major avenue for con artists or scammer ~ advertising to the masses!

That's probably the biggest issue these days.

 

[Chomiq]

You need to have lived under a rock to not know that Wish is basically an unregulated marketplace where scammers are in the majority and - with the added complications of language barriers and entirely incompatible legal systems - using it as a westerner is about as stupid as falling for a Nigerian prince email scam.

The chances of getting what you expect from Wish are vanishingly small even if you somehow don't get scammed; It is infamous.

Never heard of Wish until now.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Have to say i 100% agree with France on this

 

[N3utro]

For once our country does something smart. Too bad it's more an exception to the rule.

 

[phanbuey]

It's unlikely to last anyways -- the most likely fate of Wish will be when the PRC just clones it, copies the platform and technology, and makes their own version.

At which point ContextLogic will just apply it's marketing algorithm to another business venture.

$3 Pistol?! | We Bought 10 Weapons From Wish.com! - YouTube - LOL

 

[TheLostSwede]

Never heard of Wish until now.

A lot of people in Sweden were up in arms, because the post office and customs authority in Sweden started to leavy not just import duties, but extra fees on packages from the PRC, as there were so many orders every day via Wish that was blocking the postal system and slipping through the system so to say when it comes to paying import duties, since the senders never really declared what they sent.
Some people order clothes from there from what I understand, as it's so cheap that they can just bin whatever they don't want.
Other people other cheap electronics, cables, etc. from Wish, although most mains powered devices are most likely illegal to use in the EU, as they won't be certified.

Personally I had no idea what it was either, until they were in the news a couple of years ago due to the above.

 

[R0H1T]

It's unlikely to last anyways -- the most likely fate of Wish will be when the PRC just clones it, copies the platform and technology, and makes their own version.

At which point ContextLogic will just apply it's marketing algorithm to another business venture.

What's there to clone? They already have Aliexpress, Taobao, JD.com et al who're already bigger than Wish could ever be in its lifetime. And you get much "cheaper" fakes on those platforms

 

[phanbuey]

What's there to clone? They already have Aliexpress, Taobao, JD.com et al who're already bigger than Wish could ever be in its lifetime. And you get much "cheaper" fakes on those platforms

Very true... but mainly the look and the click tracking/sorting/buy this stuff too algorithm.

CLs primary business is/was search.

 

[Sithaer]

What's there to clone? They already have Aliexpress, Taobao, JD.com et al who're already bigger than Wish could ever be in its lifetime. And you get much "cheaper" fakes on those platforms

At least from Ali you get what you picked and paid for at least I always got my stuff right and got all of my orders in the past ~2 years since I use it. 'before that my bro did the ordering, he probably ordered 100s if not close to 1000 things over the years for the family/friends and we mostly had positive experience'
Hes actually rocking an almost all Aiexpress CPU water cooling setup/loop and its working all good with no issues for 1+ year now.

Too bad its a bit worse now since its taxed, it wasn't before so now we get our 27% VAT added to our Ali orders and some extra too. 'like a few $/euro each package'

TBH I/my family never used Wish, its been known for a long time that its mainly a scam site that sends you trash. 'Watched multiple unboxing/ordering videos on YT its kinda funny in a way'

 

[looniam]

. . going after Wish for selling substandard and even outright dangerous goods . .

but we love that stuff on this side of the pond

 

[lexluthermiester]

I have never spoken to anyone that has ever got anything from wish that was as described or otherwise quality.

Same here. It's never not been a garbage website..

The chances of getting what you expect from Wish are vanishingly small even if you somehow don't get scammed; It is infamous.

Yup!

 

[bonehead123]

"Stupid is as stupid does" - Forest, Forest Gump

or, in this instance "Cheap is as cheap does" which more often than not, translates into the above anyways, hehehe

 

[EzioAs]

You need to have lived under a rock to not know that Wish is basically an unregulated marketplace where scammers are in the majority and - with the added complications of language barriers and entirely incompatible legal systems - using it as a westerner is about as stupid as falling for a Nigerian prince email scam.

I know it's just a saying but by that logic, I'm guessing about billions of people are living under a rock. Most people I know don't even know about Wish.

 

[Caring1]

I first heard about Wish from scam emails.