|
The
27-nation EU's fine follows preliminary findings last year that
Temu was exposing consumers to a high risk of products sold on
its platform like baby toys and small electronics that didn't
comply with EU consumer safety rules.
The bloc's executive arm issued the penalty under the Digital
Services Act, or DSA, a wide-ranging rulebook that requires
online platforms to do more to keep internet users safe from
harmful content or dodgy goods, under the threat of hefty fines.
Temu did not respond immediately to a request for comment. The
company is popular because it offers cheap goods - from clothing
to home products — shipped from sellers in China. The platform
has 92 million users in the EU and is owned by PDD Holdings
Inc., which also owns the popular Chinese ecommerce site
Pinduoduo.
The European Commission said Temu failed to identify, analyze
and assess the systemic risks of illegal goods for sale on the
platform and the resulting harm to European consumers.
The commission said failing to do proper risk assessments is a
particularly serious breach of the bloc's digital rules.
Risk assessments are “not box‐ticking exercises," European
Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkunnen said.
“Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks
specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not
comprehensive,” she said in a prepared statement. "It leaves
regulators, users, and the public in the dark about the true
scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu.
Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.”
Temu has until the end of August to submit an “action plan” to
remedy the problem. It could be hit with additional daily,
weekly or monthly fines if it fails to comply.
___
AP writer Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
|
|
