This weekend, and as more than 2,000 stores were looted and pillaged across France, many stolen items ended up for sale on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October, on platforms such as Vinted, Leboncoin, Amazon, eBay, or the Facebook and TikTok marketplaces. Some listings even claimed the theft in the description.
Products resold via Snapchat
Branded clothing, video games, perfumes, makeup… All imaginable products were offered for sale. Many listings circulated on social networks, notably on Snapchat, so that people interested in a potential purchase could contact the looter seller via private message.
On X, many posts denounced these acts, but others mocked them, as the prices offered were sometimes excessive, especially for makeup.
According to Franceinfo, resale listings for these stolen products on Vinted had disappeared by Monday. The platform’s security and moderation teams worked tirelessly this weekend “to identify and remove listings likely to involve stolen goods”.
A platform official assured that a “zero tolerance” policy was being applied. “We have strengthened the monitoring of suspicious listings,” it is also stated.
“We will not let it pass”
“Stolen items this weekend are being offered for sale on certain platforms. Such behavior will not go unpunished. We will not let it pass,” reacted the Minister of Trade, Serge Parpin, on X.
All the platforms concerned have been contacted and are urged “to cooperate closely with the state services so that the resellers are prosecuted”.
Under the law, individuals convicted of receiving stolen goods face up to five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros.
In the event of aggravated receiving of stolen goods, the penalty can go up to ten years in prison and a fine of 750,000 euros.
