Plea in HC against re-entry of Chinese fashion brand Shein via Amazon; Delhi HC seeks govt reply

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday (July 23) has sought a response from the Centre and Amazon on a plea seeking to prohibit the re-entry of Chinese fashion brand 'Shein' in India through sale of its products on the digital marketplace.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice on the petition on the ground that Shein was temporarily banned in India by the Centre last year for being prejudicial to the interest and sovereignty of India, reported news agency PTI.

The court, however, refused to pass any interim order to stay the sale at this stage.

Senior Advocate Vivek Raj Singh, appearing for petitioner Ananttika Singh, urged the court to intervene else ‘data will be transferred to Chinese company’.

"We will see on returnable date," the court said.

Raj Singh informed the court that there was an advertisement on Amazon which publicised the sale of Shein products on its platform as part of their prime day sale.

“59 Chinese apps were banned by the Government of India on June 29, 2020. Shein has been banned”, he submitted, pleading that consequently there should be a total prohibition on the sale of Shein products in the country.
He further stated that in spite of a representation made to the Centre, no steps were taken to prevent the sale of Shein products.

The matter would be heard next on August 20.

In her PIL, filed through advocate Preet Singh Oberoi, Ananttika Singh has sought a direction to Amazon to suspend its partnership with Shein until the ban imposed by Centre is not lifted.

It is stated that once the entry of Shein and its products was banned for using data of its Indian customers in a manner prejudicial to the interest and sovereignty of the country, it cannot be allowed to circumvent the law by using a third party platform.

The petition highlights that as per Amazon's privacy policy, it could share the data collected from users with registered sellers and it was thus possible that 'Shein' would once again have access to personal and sensitive data of several millions of Indian citizen.

The petition also sought a direction to the Centre to appoint a third party committee, at the cost of Amazon, to make audits on the flow of data of the India consumers to Shein.

(With inputs from news agencies)