Items looted during the October 17 riots began appearing for sale on e-commerce platforms within hours of the unrest, according to Fortune. Thieves targeted luxury cosmetics, fragrances, handbags and electronics in particular, small, high-demand items that are easy to photograph and resell quickly, often in bulk and below market price.
Vinted, Europe's leading secondhand marketplace, found itself at the center of the story: the hashtag "October 17," matching the date of the riots, trended on the platform before usage declined as theft reports multiplied. Commerce Minister Serge Papin and Digital Minister Anne Le Henanff summoned Vinted, along with Leboncoin, Amazon, eBay, Meta and TikTok, to a videoconference demanding the removal of suspicious listings.
Retailer Carrefour, which had more than 50 stores hit, estimated its operating losses at between 80 and 200 million euros, an announcement that sent its stock down roughly 15 percent. More broadly, more than 3,000 businesses were looted or damaged during the unrest, with insured losses estimated at 1.2 billion euros.