Protecting EU consumers against the practices of certain e-commerce platforms: the case of child-like sex dolls, weapons and other illegal products and material

Amendments tabled for the plenary sitting on this text, in their own numbering series. This is a different set from the committee amendments tracked elsewhere on AmendEU, and is not counted in any of the site’s amendment totals.

1. Amendment 1The LeftMotion for a resolution · Recital C a (new)
   Amendment

   Ca. whereas Shein senior executives refused to appear before the fact-finding mission of the French National Assembly on controls on products imported into France;

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2. Amendment 2The LeftMotion for a resolution · Recital E a (new)
   Amendment

   Ea. whereas the Swedish Government summoned Amazon and other e-commerce platforms to a meeting after child rights organisation ChildX filed a police report over the sale of child-like sex dolls on those websites;

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3. Amendment 3The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 1
   Current text

   1. Condemns the recent events in France concerning the availability on SHEIN of child-like sexualised objects and other illicit or dangerous goods, such as weapons, which were accessible throughout the EU; stresses that these practices constitute a severe breach of EU law and a direct threat to the safety of consumers and the protection of minors;

   Amendment

   1. Condemns the recent events in the EU concerning the availability on e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN, Temu, AliExpress, Wish and Amazon of child-like sexualised objects and other illicit or dangerous goods, such as weapons, which were accessible throughout the EU; stresses that these practices constitute a severe breach of EU law and a direct threat to the safety of consumers and the protection of minors;

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4. Amendment 4The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 1 a (new)
   Amendment

   1a. Condemns Shein’s refusal to appear before a fact-finding mission of a national parliament;

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5. Amendment 5The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 1 b (new)
   Amendment

   1b. Considers it essential that the senior executives of the platforms concerned be summoned to appear before its Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection;

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6. Amendment 6The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 1 c (new)
   Amendment

   1c. Calls for the entry badges of the registered lobbyists from Shein, AliExpress and all platforms concerned to be revoked, as has already been done for Amazon lobbyists, if the senior executives of these platforms refuse to appear before its Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection;

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7. Amendment 7The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 6 a (new)
   Amendment

   6a. Considers more broadly that e-commerce has an important social aspect; stresses that social crises and inflation have hit EU consumers hard, reducing their buying power; underlines that higher buying power, achieved in particular through fair and higher wages, will encourage consumers to switch from buying cheaper, unsafe and illegal products to buying better quality and legally compliant products;

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8. Amendment 8The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 11 a (new)
   Amendment

   11a. Calls on the Commission to explain how it will ensure that this handling fee will be met by the online retailers or e-commerce platforms and not passed on to consumers;

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9. Amendment 9The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 11 b (new)
   Amendment

   11b. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to ensure that the new resources generated by this handling fee will support the work of authorities responsible for market surveillance, customs, consumer protection and digital services, so that they can better cope with the challenges related to illegal products and material while not putting the authorities’ agents under undue pressure and while respecting labour rights;

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10. Amendment 10The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 13
    Current text

    13. Emphasises that the recent findings concerning SHEIN demonstrate systemic failures rather than isolated incidents and cannot be remedied merely through product withdrawal or public apologies;

    Amendment

    13. Emphasises that the recent findings concerning SHEIN, Temu, AliExpress, Wish, Amazon and other e-commerce platforms demonstrate systemic failures rather than isolated incidents and cannot be remedied merely through product withdrawal or public apologies;

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11. Amendment 11The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 31
    Current text

    31. Notes that in some cases non-EU traders and platforms bring non-compliant and sometimes dangerous goods to the EU market without facing consequences; notes that the reform of the Union Customs Code should contribute to addressing liability loopholes for non-compliant products entering the EU customs territory;

    Amendment

    31. Notes that in some cases non-EU traders and platforms bring non-compliant and sometimes dangerous goods to the EU market without facing consequences; notes that the reform of the Union Customs Code should clarify and increase platforms’ liability for non-compliant products entering the EU customs territory, especially through the ‘deemed importer’ concept;

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12. Amendment 12The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 31 a (new)
    Amendment

    31a. Notes the calls for non-EU traders to establish warehouses in the EU to increase the oversight of customs and market surveillance authorities and improve their controls on and detection of illegal products and material;

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13. Amendment 13The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 31 b (new)
    Amendment

    31b. Stresses, however, that working conditions in warehousing and delivery are deteriorating, leading to massive staff turnover despite the increasing demand for labour in the sector; stresses the significant challenges to workers’ rights faced by logistics workers, including unregulated subcontracting, precarious and atypical working arrangements, discrimination and barriers faced by migrant workers, violations of remuneration agreements, and non-compliance with working time regulations and with occupational health and safety standards; underlines the importance of addressing these challenges in order to effectively protect EU consumers against illegal products and material;

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14. Amendment 14The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 31 c (new)
    Amendment

    31c. Strongly condemns the ongoing gutting of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive; considers that this approach sends a disastrous message to multinational companies and will ultimately facilitate the introduction of illegal and dangerous products into the EU through e-commerce platforms;

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15. Amendment 15The LeftMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 33
    Current text

    33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

    Amendment

    33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the senior executives of Shein, Temu, AliExpress, Wish, Amazon and all other platforms concerned.

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16. Amendment 16ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 32 a (new)
    Amendment

    32a. Stresses that such child-like sex dolls cannot be considered a harmless outlet but are a facilitator that conditions predators and perpetrators to commit real acts against children; recalls that experts in child protection consider such products to be training or progressive conditioning for at-risk individuals;

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17. Amendment 17ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 19 a (new)
    Amendment

    19a. Calls on the Commission and the Council to mandate Europol to closely cooperate with and support national cybercrime units, to intensify targeted monitoring and investigative operations online, including on darknet marketplaces, with a view to identifying illegal products facilitating, normalising or linked to the sexual exploitation of minors; requests, furthermore, that Europol provide regular confidential briefings to the competent authorities and parliamentary bodies on emerging trends and operational needs;

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18. Amendment 18ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 11
    Current text

    11. Deplores the slow progress of the investigations initiated by the Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network into non-EU online platforms for alleged violations of EU product safety and consumer laws and into very large platforms, in particular under the DSA; regrets that investigative procedures often extend over many months or even years, thereby eroding citizens’ trust and hampering lawmakers’ capacity to respond to rapidly emerging online risks; stresses the urgency in bringing these investigations to a conclusion and addressing the structural reasons for this damaging slowness; underlines that, in practice, suspending platforms’ operations, as currently sought in Fra…

    Amendment

    11. Deplores the slow progress of the investigations initiated by the Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network into non-EU online platforms for alleged violations of EU product safety and consumer laws and into very large platforms, in particular under the DSA; regrets that investigative procedures often extend over many months or even years, thereby eroding citizens’ trust and hampering lawmakers’ capacity to respond to rapidly emerging online risks; stresses the urgency in bringing these investigations to a conclusion and addressing the structural reasons for this damaging slowness; underlines that, in practice, suspending platforms’ operations, as currently sought in Fra…

    Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
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19. Amendment 19ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 32 b (new)
    Amendment

    32b. Expresses strong concerns about intentionally built-in mechanisms exploiting the dopamine reward loop, whose architecture aims to maximise screen time and thus has a destructive effect on the mental health, attention autonomy and cognitive abilities of both young users and adults; invites the Commission to consider the disclosure and elimination of such mechanisms as a precondition for access to the EU market;

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20. Amendment 20ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 32 c (new)
    Amendment

    32c. Suggests that funds collected by Member States through fines and penalties should be allocated to combating child sexual abuse networks and assisting victims of child sexual abuse;

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21. Amendment 21ECRMotion for a resolution · Paragraph 17
    Current text

    17. Calls on the Commission and the national competent authorities to strongly enforce the DSA with regard to the responsibility of online marketplaces, in particular their obligations in terms of recommender systems, interface design, the right to information, compliance by design rules to increase the overall traceability, and their ‘know your business customer’ obligation; stresses the need for a DSA-based network of trusted flaggers for illegal products and e-commerce to ensure that platforms fulfil their obligations effectively; recalls that SHEIN and other online platforms, such as Temu and AliExpress, have been designated as very large online platforms and are subject to enhanced obli…

    Amendment

    17. Calls on the Commission and the national competent authorities to strongly enforce the DSA with regard to the responsibility of online marketplaces, in particular their obligations in terms of recommender systems, interface design, the right to information, compliance by design rules to increase the overall traceability, and their ‘know your business customer’ obligation; stresses the need for a DSA-based network of trusted flaggers for illegal products and e-commerce to ensure that platforms fulfil their obligations effectively; recalls that SHEIN and other online platforms, such as Temu and AliExpress, have been designated as very large online platforms and are subject to enhanced obli…

    Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
    official amendment document ↗
22. Amendment 22ECRMotion for a resolution · Recital E a (new)
    Amendment

    Ea. whereas very large online platforms (VLOPs), through the systematic use of infinite scroll, personalised algorithmic recommendations, push notifications, gamification features (points, streaks, countdowns, flash sales) and other addictive design mechanisms, deliberately trigger and exploit repeated dopamine release in users’ brains, thereby creating behavioural loops that maximise time spent on the platform and encourage compulsive purchasing behaviour; whereas these ‘dopamine-driven dark patterns’ are particularly harmful to minors and adolescents, whose prefrontal cortex is still developing and who are therefore significantly more vulnerable to addictive digital environments, leading t…

    Excerpt — full text in the official PDF.
    official amendment document ↗