The European Commission yesterday said an investigation opened in October 2024 had found evidence showing there is a high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products on the Chinese-owned platform.

A “mystery shopping” exercise conducted by the Commission found that consumers shopping on Temu are very likely to find non-compliant products among the offer, such as baby toys and small electronics.

Temu shared a risk assessment with the Commission which, the Commission alleges, was inaccurate and relying on general industry information rather than on specific details about Temu’s own marketplace, which may therefore have led to inadequate mitigation measures.

The Commission is continuing its investigation in relation to other suspected breaches of the DSA, including the effectiveness of its mitigation measures, the use of addictive design features, the transparency of its recommendation systems, and its access to data for researchers.

In the meantime, Temu has the opportunity to reply in writing to the Commission’s preliminary findings.

If the Commission’s preliminary views were to be ultimately confirmed, the Commission would adopt a non-compliance decision finding that Temu is in breach of Article 34 of the DSA.

Such a decision could entail fines of up to six per cent of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider and order the provider to take measures to address the breach.

A non-compliance decision may also trigger an enhanced supervision period to ensure compliance with the measures the provider intends to take to remedy the breach.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: “We shop online because we trust that products sold in our single market are safe and comply with our rules.

“In our preliminary view, Temu is far from assessing risks for its users at the standards required by the Digital Services Act.

“Consumers’ safety online is not negotiable in the EU — our laws, including the Digital Services Act, are the foundation for a better protection online and a safer and fairer digital single market for all Europeans.”