Second-hand clothing app Vinted purges suspected stolen goods after France riots

By Anna Peverieri

Oct 19 (Reuters) - Vinted, an app for buying and selling second-hand clothing, said on Monday it had increased checks on suspicious listings and removed adverts linked to looted goods following unrest in France.

Nationwide demonstrations across France over the cost of living and declining public service deteriorated into riots on Saturday, with shops looted across the country as violent groups clashed with police in one of the worst days of violence in years.

Vinted said its teams had taken "immediate action" since the weekend to identify and remove listings suspected of being linked to looting, and had increased scrutiny of suspicious adverts.

Accounts found to have breached its rules could face permanent bans, it said.

"The sale of stolen goods, or soliciting them, is strictly prohibited on Vinted, and we have zero tolerance for it," a Vinted spokesperson said in a statement.

The company said it was working with law enforcement and French authorities and would continue to adapt its processes to identify and counter emerging risks and malicious behaviour.

Serge Papin, France's small businesses minister, said on X that authorities would meet later in the day with marketplace operators and officials from the interior and justice ministries, after goods stolen during Saturday's unrest were offered for sale online.

Platforms including Vinted, Amazon, eBay and TikTok were invited to the meeting on Monday, according to government officials.

Vinted did not say whether it had seen a similar increase in suspicious listings in Italy, where unrest also led to the looting of luxury stores.

France, the UK and Italy are Vinted's largest markets.

Luxury groups including Louis Vuitton and Rolex, as well as make-up retail giant Sephora, have been caught up in unrest in France and Italy where some of the most violent protests seen in decades over living costs and declining public services have prompted police to fire tear gas and use water cannon as demonstrators looted shops and set fires.

Founded in Lithuania in ​2008, Vinted became the Baltic state's first "unicorn" - a startup valued at €1 billion - in 2019. A secondary share transaction led by Sweden's EQT Growth valued Vinted at €8 billion earlier this year.

The online marketplace prohibits the sale of stolen items and relies on reports from retailers and users, among other checks, to detect suspicious listings.

(Reporting by Anna Peverieri in Barcelona; Editing by Tasim Zahid)