Temu, a gigantic digital bazaar of objects often made of plastic and often manufactured in China, is in the crosshairs of the European Commission. The latter triggered, on Thursday, October 31, an investigation into the commercial practices of the Chinese online trading platform, popular throughout the world. The European executive bases its action on “strong suspicions” violations of the European Digital Services Regulation, better known as DSA (Digital Services Act).
Temu attracted the attention of authorities upon its arrival in Europe in April 2023, prevailing with low prices and considerable marketing expenses. A year and a half after its launch, the platform has 92 million monthly users, far exceeding the threshold of 45 million monthly users necessary to be considered, according to European legislation, as a “very large platform”. This name is far from trivial. This is direct supervision by the European Commission, which now has the power to control, together with the authorities of the Member States, the application of European law.
Today, there is no guarantee that the products, which flood the market from China through the Temu platform or other equivalent platforms, comply with European standards. This is one of the main complaints of the Commission, which was alerted very soon by consumer associations and national authorities.
Consumer associations have identified numerous non-compliant and sometimes dangerous products accessible on the platform. For example, they spotted items whose instructions were only available in Chinese, cosmetic products without a list of ingredients, or baby toys with small parts that came off too easily. Pharmaceutical products, jewelry and all types of manufactured items are affected. The Commission wishes to know whether these errors, as far as the DSA is concerned, are “systemic”.
“Addictive” features
Sébastien Pant, spokesperson for the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), underlines the responsibility of the platforms: “Very large platforms like Temu are obliged to implement a system to prevent the sale of dangerous products on the European market. Without this, Temu cannot guarantee consumers that its products comply with European standards. » Before the investigation was officially launched, the Commission asked the Chinese company to produce a “Risk assessment”, but “this became too generalized”comments a Commission source.
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