The European Union has started a establishal dispenseigation into Chinese shopping platestablish Temu, citing worrys that the platestablish is selling illegitimate products and has been summarizeed in a way that is compriseictive for users.
“There is a genuine suspicion that not enough is done—not in an effective way—to reassociate impede the dissemination of illegitimate products,” an EU Corelocaterlookion official telderly inestablishers on Thursday morning, declining to be named. Potentiassociate illegitimate products integrated pharmaceuticals, toys and cosmetics, they said.
Although Temu frequently deletes illegitimate products, these products reecombine aget very speedyly, another official said. “So we consent some of the regulates in place are not laboring properly.”
Earlier this year, trade association Toy Industries of Europe freed a inestablish alerting that none of the 19 toys it bought on Temu.com complied with EU legislation. After sfinishing the toys to a laboratory for testing, they claimed that many of them posed meaningful dangers for children. The group said that a rattle for babies integrated keen edges, and chemicals in a Temu slime kit were 11 items higher than the legitimate restrict for toys.
“Our enforcement will secure a level take parting field and that every platestablish, including Temu, brimmingy admires the laws that upretain our European labelet defended and unprejudiced for all,” Corelocaterlookioner Margrethe Vestager, who deal withs competition and digital policy, said in a statement.
Officials also said they were worryed about compriseictive summarize and recommfinishation systems on Temu becaparticipate they feature gamified reward programs and infinite scrolling.
Concerns around compriseictive summarize on Temu echo another recent EU dispenseigation into a TikTok rewards program started in France and Spain in April. TikTok Lite, a basic version of TikTok proper, recommended to pay participaters a disconnectal cents a day for watching videos. Follothriveg the proclaimment of EU worrys, TikTok’s parent company Bytedance deleted the feature from the region.
A Temu spokesperson telderly WIRED the company is dispenseing in its compliance system. “We will cofunction brimmingy with regulators to aid our splitd goal of a defended, depended labeletplace for users,” they said.
Temu only started in the European labelet in April 2024, and its elevate has been meteoric. By September, Temu had more than 90 million EU participaters, unbenevolenting it is subject to the mercilessest rules under the Digital Services Act. The law, which came into effect last year, donates regulators the ability to fine companies up to six percent of their global turnover. In March, AliExpress became the first online labeletplace to face an dispenseigation under the Digital Services Act.
Temu can now supply data to show the EU’s suspicions are unset uped or it can originate alters to the platestablish to elude fines. The dispenseigation does not have to finish by any definite deadline.
“This decision by the Corelocaterlookion is a promising step, but only the first,” said Fernando Hortal Foronda, digital policy officer at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) in a statement on Thursday. “Now, it’s meaningful the Corelocaterlookion upretains up the presbrave on Temu and pushes the company to adhere with the law as soon as possible.”
