The regulatory war of Brussels against the great technological ones beyond the Union continues to add battles. The European Commission has determined on Monday in a preliminary way that the Chinese Electronic Commerce giant Temu failed to comply with the obligation, according to properly evaluating the risks of the dissemination of illegal products in its market.
In autumn of 2024, the Council that groups the consumption authorities of the different EU states and the European Commission denounced that this electronic commerce platform had acted against the rules of the consumer protection union itself ,. The lawsuit, in addition, came a few days after the community executive himself opened an investigation to TeMU for suspicions of breach of certain aspects of the DSA.
Now, according to Brussels, the tests have shown that there is a high risk for EU consumers to meet illegal products on the aforementioned platform, one of the main competitors of Amazon. Specifically, the analysis of an anonymous purchasing exercise carried out by the commission itself revealed that it is very likely that consumers who buy in TeMU can find non -compliant products in the offer, such as baby toys and small electronic devices.
According to the commission’s analysis, the TeMU risk assessment carried out in October 2024 was inaccurate and was based on general information in the sector instead of focusing on specific details of its own market. Therefore, this analysis could have given rise to inadequate mitigation measures against the dissemination of illegal products.
The Commission also states that it will continue its investigation into other alleged offenses open in October 2024, including the effectiveness of its mitigation measures, the use of addictive design functions, the transparency of its systems of recommendation to users and access to data for researchers.
Brussels specifies that the preliminary conclusions sent on Monday are understood without prejudice to the final result of the investigation, and remember that Temu now has the possibility of exercising its right of defense, examining the investigation file of the Commission and responding in writing to the preliminary conclusions of the commission. At the same time, the European Digital Services Committee will be consulted.
Temu sources have indicated that the company “will continue to cooperate fully with the commission.”
If the preliminary conclusions of the Commission be confirmed, it will adopt a non -compliance decision that determines that Temu has infringed article 34 of the DSA. This decision could lead to fines of up to 6% of the total annual provider of the supplier, in addition to ordering the adoption of measures to correct the infraction. A non -compliance decision could also lead to a reinforced supervision period to guarantee compliance with the measures that the supplier proposes to adopt to correct the infraction.
Temu is a non -quoted company and does not publish its results as such. Its parent company, PDD Holdings, does and registered revenues of 35.5 billion dollars (about 30.4 billion euros) in the whole of last 2024 year, but it is not specified which part corresponds to Temu and, therefore, on which figure the fine would apply.
In addition, aside, Brussels has raised the introduction of a two -euro rate for low -cost packages that enter the EU, Temu and Shein. In fact, the Commissioner of Commerce, Maros Sefcofic, has claimed the European Parliament to reactive the customs reform of the Union. Several millions of small packages for customs that avoid the payment of tariffs for having a value of 150 euros enter into the European Union. And that costs the coffers of La Unión about 1.5 billion euros.
