A French investigation dissects the controversial alliance between Shein and BHV owner Frédéric Merlin
In Mediapart, journalist Mathias Thépot reports on the explosive arrival of the Chinese ultra-fast-fashion giant Shein inside Paris’s historic Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville shop, better known as BHV. The opening of Shein’s first physical store, unveiled on 5 November in the heart of the capital, was meant to signal reinvention. Instead, it has triggered political backlash, regulatory scrutiny, and renewed questions about the survival strategy of BHV’s embattled owner, Frédéric Merlin.
Shein’s presence on Rue de Rivoli immediately drew protest from local residents and left-wing elected officials, including Socialist Emmanuel Grégoire, Green politician David Belliard and Communist senator Ian Brossat. Shein, which generated €2.3 billion in French e-commerce revenue in 2024, has come to symbolise the worst excesses of globalised production: disposable clothing, environmental degradation, obscure supply chains and exploitative labour conditions.
Thépot covers the controversies engulfing the company. In late October 2025, the consumer magazine 60 Millions de Consommateurs revealed that Shein had listed sex dolls of a paedopornographic nature on its platform, prompting intervention by France’s consumer protection authority and referral to the public prosecutor, the article notes. A few days later, reports surfaced that category A weapons, including firearms, were being sold online. The French government announced it would initiate a suspension procedure against Shein’s website until compliance with national regulations could be demonstrated.
These scandals add to an already extensive record. In July 2025, Shein was fined €40 million in France for misleading commercial practices. The European Commission has opened proceedings over unfair competition. The company has also faced sustained criticism over environmental harm, unsafe materials and punishing factory conditions in its supply chain. For Thépot, Shein does not represent an alternative to exploitative capitalism but rather its acceleration, intensifying the extraction of labour and fossil fuels to deliver rock-bottom prices and incessant overconsumption.
Central to Shein’s defence is its populist slogan: fashion is a right, not a privilege. Influencers and executives frame the brand as democratising style for consumers priced out of traditional retail. Frédéric Merlin has echoed this logic, insisting that BHV does not categorise its customers and must adapt to new economic realities. Yet Thépot dismantles this claim, arguing that the rhetoric of accessibility disguises the same value-extraction model that dominates the industry. Cheap clothing, he suggests, is not emancipation but a symptom of a system built on disposability.
If Shein embodies one side of the story analysed in the article, BHV’s financial fragility is the other. Merlin acquired the iconic department store from Galeries Lafayette with ambitions of revival. Instead, Thépot describes mounting instability. Payment delays to suppliers reportedly reached nearly €30 million by spring 2025. Brands, frustrated by unpaid invoices, have withdrawn from the store, leaving shelves increasingly bare. Turnover dropped by 30 percent in July and August 2025 compared with the previous year, itself already weakened.
Merlin disputes the scale of the crisis, claiming that suppliers are owed only modest sums equivalent to days of sales. But several brands have reportedly initiated legal proceedings, including bailiff actions and potential insolvency filings. The Shein partnership, far from reassuring partners, appears to have intensified their concerns. Some retailers departed permanently following the announcement. Even Banque des Territoires, a subsidiary of the state Caisse des Dépôts that had backed Merlin’s acquisition of the BHV building, withdrew support, citing misalignment with its institutional values.
The investigation ultimately frames the partnership as emblematic of a broader decay in the business world. A legacy Parisian institution, struggling under financial strain, turns to a company repeatedly sanctioned for legal and ethical breaches. The result is not renewal but convergence of two models of aggressive capitalism reinforcing one another.
The original article by Mathias Thépot ‘Shein et Frédéric Merlin: l’alliance de ce qui se fait de pire dans le capitalisme’ was published in French on November 5, 2025 in Mediapart.
It is available here.
Mediapart is a French independent online news organisation celebrated for its investigative journalism and subscriber-funded model.
