Vinted flooded with stolen goods after riots in France

From designer handbags to cosmetics: the secondhand marketplace Vinted is grappling with a wave of suspicious listings following the violent riots and looting in France last weekend. The company is mass-removing listings for luxury products that are suspected of coming from looted stores.

Luxury goods are reappearing

During the unrest, thousands of French stores were vandalized and looted. Images of looting at luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and Celine are circulating on social media. Cosmetics chain Sephora confirmed that protesters broke into several locations and eventually closed all its stores.

Since then, a striking number of listings have appeared on Vinted for products that closely resemble the stolen goods. “We’re seeing a clear spike in listings for luxury items that don’t normally appear in such large numbers on our platform,” says a Vinted spokesperson. Suspicious listings are also circulating on the French sales platform Leboncoin, sometimes even with the security tags still attached to the products.

Vinted steps up monitoring

Vinted emphasizes that the platform does not tolerate the handling of stolen goods and has mechanisms in place to detect stolen items. “We immediately took measures to identify and remove listings related to the looting,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, we have tightened our monitoring of suspicious listings and are working closely with French authorities.”

Anyone who violates the rules risks permanent exclusion from the platform. Still, it remains a cat-and-mouse game. “As long as there are people who want to sell stolen goods, we will continue to take action,” the spokesperson said.

A growing problem

The events in France also shed unexpected light on a broader problem: the rise of online fencing via platforms such as Vinted, eBay, and Facebook Marketplace. Criminals are increasingly using these channels to resell stolen goods, often under false pretenses. After all, how can secondhand platforms verify the origin of the millions of products offered by private sellers?

It’s also a challenge for the police to keep up with these practices, especially when the perpetrators remain anonymous. Nevertheless, the issue is now receiving political attention. The French government called out Amazon, eBay, Leboncoin, Meta, TikTok, and Vinted today: Minister of Commerce Serge Papin is demanding that the platforms immediately remove the listings and that the companies cooperate with the police and judicial authorities to prosecute the sellers.

Meanwhile, new unrest looms. The Yellow Vests have announced a second wave of protests for Saturday, October 24, against the high cost of living. The CGT union and student organizations are also planning new demonstrations.