DUBLIN, – Ireland’s powerful Data Protection Commission (DPC) has opened an inquiry into Chinese online retailer Shein over the transfer of European users’ data to China, the company’s lead EU privacy regulator said on Tuesday.
The DPC will examine and assess the extent to which the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters in Dublin has complied with its relevant obligations under the EU privacy rules – known as the General Data Protection Regulation – in relation to these transfers, it said in a statement.
The DPC last year fined China’s TikTok 530 million euros ($619 million) over concerns about how it protects user information and ordered the short video platform to suspend data transfers to China if its processing is not brought into compliance.
“Recent regulatory action by the DPC, together with complaints to other European supervisory authorities, has brought data transfers to China, in particular, into focus,” DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.
“The inquiry is an important strategic priority for the DPC.”
A spokesperson for Shein made no immediate comment.
The probe is the first privacy investigation opened into the online retailer since it opened its EMEA headquarters in Dublin in 2023.
The DPC is the lead EU regulator for many of the world’s top tech firms due to the location of their regional headquarters in Ireland and has levied more than 4 billion euros in fines for GDPR breaches since 2020.
An Irish court is due to rule shortly on TikTok’s appeal against the DPC’s ruling over its data transfers to China. The order to suspend transfers has been paused, pending the outcome.
($1 = 0.8557 euros)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Padraic Halpin; editing by Sarah Young)
