The European Union has accused the online shopping platform Temu of breaching its digital safety regulations by failing to properly assess and prevent the sale of illegal and potentially dangerous products.
EU officials raised serious concerns on Monday, stating that the Chinese-founded retail giant is not adequately safeguarding consumers within the bloc. In its preliminary findings, the European Commission claimed that Temu may be putting users at risk due to weak oversight and non-compliance with the EU’s strict Digital Services Act (DSA).
“There is a high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products on the platform,” the Commission warned, citing a mystery shopping exercise that uncovered a concerning number of non-compliant items, including unsafe baby toys and electronic goods.
Despite only launching in the EU in 2023, Temu has rapidly grown to become one of the most visited e-commerce sites in the 27-nation bloc, with nearly 94 million monthly active users. However, regulators say the company’s risk assessment report from October 2024 was “inaccurate”, relying on vague industry trends rather than on specific data from its own operations.
The probe into Temu falls under the remit of the DSA — a sweeping set of EU rules aimed at holding the world’s biggest tech companies accountable for illegal content, product safety, and online transparency. The investigation is still ongoing, and Temu will now have the opportunity to respond to the Commission’s findings.
Should the EU determine that Temu has broken the rules, the platform could face heavy penalties. Fines under the DSA can reach up to six percent of a company’s global annual turnover, and offending platforms may also be forced to implement urgent corrective measures.
Temu is also being investigated for other possible violations, including the use of potentially addictive design features that could harm users’ physical and mental health, and for how it recommends content and products through its algorithms.
The DSA is a central pillar of the EU’s renewed push to rein in the power of large digital platforms, and it continues to draw criticism from abroad. On Friday, the US House of Representatives’ Republican-led Judiciary Committee issued a harsh report, describing the EU legislation as a “foreign censorship threat”.
The committee’s chairman, Republican congressman and Trump ally Jim Jordan, is due to meet EU digital affairs chief Henna Virkkunen in Brussels on Monday.
Temu is not the only company under scrutiny. The European Commission has also launched DSA-related investigations into fellow Chinese retailer AliExpress, social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok.
In addition to regulating online content, the EU is also targeting the vast number of low-cost parcels entering its borders. A new proposal under discussion could see a flat €2 fee imposed on each package.
In 2023, the EU received a staggering 4.6 billion parcels — equating to more than 145 every second — with 91 percent of them originating from China. Officials anticipate this number will continue to rise.
