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PDD’s Temu shopping app targeted in EU consumer group’s complaint to EU tech regulator

  • Pan-European consumers organisation BEUC says Temu, which launched in Europe last year, is breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act
  • Temu often fails to provide consumers with crucial information about the sellers on its platform and safety standards of products, the complaint says

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Temu, an e-commerce platform owned by PDD Holdings, is hit with a EU consumer rights complaint. Photo: Reuters
Reuters
Chinese fast-fashion e-commerce retailer Temu was hit with a European Union complaint on Thursday over a potential breach of online content rules by the PDD Holdings-owned business.
Under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, online marketplaces and intermediaries are required to fight illegal and harmful content as well as counterfeit products on their platforms.

Pan-European consumers organisation BEUC said it has lodged a grievance with the European Commission while 17 of its members in countries including France, Italy and the Netherlands have also filed complaints with their relevant national authorities.

Temu, with 75 million monthly EU users as of March, often failed to provide consumers with crucial information about the sellers on its platform and whether their products met EU product safety requirements, BEUC said.

The complaint said that Temu uses manipulative practices such as dark patterns to get consumers to spend more than they may want and that there was insufficient information on how it recommends products to consumers.

“Temu is being complacent here because it is breaching the EU’s Digital Services Act,” BEUC Director General Monique Goyens said in a statement.

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