Temu is the newest platform the European Fee (EC) has mounted its regulatory gaze upon. Europe’s high client enforcement authority mentioned Thursday it’s opening a proper investigation into the net retailer for enabling the sale of unlawful merchandise, together with limiting the reappearance of beforehand suspended “rogue merchants” with a historical past of hawking prohibited items.
Along with the unlawful product allegation, the EC can be investigating Temu’s doubtlessly addictive design, the platform’s programs that suggest merchandise and knowledge entry for researchers. The alleged violations fall below the Digital Companies Act (DSA), which empowers the EC to levy fines of as much as six p.c of Temu’s annual income.
In an announcement to Engadget, an organization spokesperson mentioned it plans to cooperate absolutely. “Temu takes its obligations below the DSA significantly, constantly investing to strengthen our compliance system and safeguard client pursuits on our platform,” the Temu spokesperson wrote. “We are going to cooperate absolutely with regulators to assist our shared purpose of a protected, trusted market for shoppers.”
Temu added that it’s in discussions to affix the “Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the sale of counterfeit items on the web,” a collective of on-line retailers (facilitated by the EC) that collaborates to forestall pretend product gross sales in Europe. “We will affirm that we’re in discussions to affix the initiative,” the Temu spokesperson instructed Engadget. “Counterfeiting is an industrywide problem, and we consider that collaborative efforts are important to advancing our shared targets of defending shoppers and rights holders.”
The EC’s formal proceedings comply with a preliminary danger evaluation report Temu supplied the EU on the finish of September, its replies to the Fee’s formal requests in June and October and information shared by third events. As Bloomberg notes, Meta, X, AliExpress and TikTok are additionally dealing with DSA investigations.
The US, which usually lags far behind the EU in reining in Massive Tech, mentioned in September it could examine Temu, too. Leaders of The Shopper Product Security Fee (CPSC) ordered employees to guage considerations about “lethal child and toddler merchandise” on the platform.
Among the many EC’s considerations are whether or not Temu’s programs are designed to forestall the reappearance of beforehand suspended merchants and non-compliant merchandise. It would additionally have a look at the platform’s doubtlessly addictive gamified reward packages and its programs to mitigate the dangers from addictive design selections that might hurt clients’ psychological well-being. It would examine Temu’s parameters used to suggest items (the Fee desires a minimum of one “simply accessible choice that’s not primarily based on profiling”) and whether or not the corporate complies with the DSA’s requirement to offer researchers with publicly accessible knowledge.
The EC doesn’t set authorized deadline for finishing DSA investigations. As soon as concluded, the Fee will determine whether or not to carry the hammer down, settle for voluntary commitments to treatment the issues or drop the case.
