“High risk of illegal products on Temu”

Chinese online marketplace Temu is not doing enough to tackle the sale of illegal products on its platform, is the preliminary conclusion of an investigation by the European Commission.

Baby toys and electronics

Temu is violating the European Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission said in a press release today: “There is a high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products on the platform.” Analysis of a mystery shopping survey shows that the risk of non-compliant products is particularly high for baby toys and small electronic devices, among other things.

Last October, the European Commission launched a formal procedure to investigate whether Temu complies with the strict rules that very large online platforms must meet. The preliminary conclusions are not reassuring: “In our preliminary view, Temu is far from assessing risks for its users at the standards required by the Digital Services Act.”

The European Commission can impose a fine equivalent to 6 % of global annual turnover, but the Chinese company will still have the opportunity to respond to the allegations and address the alleged infringements. In a reply to RetailDetail, the company stated that “We will continue to cooperate fully with the European Commission.”