The EU imposed a fine of 200 million euros on Thursday, May 28, on the Chinese online commerce giant Temu, for having allowed the sale to European consumers of illegal products, including dangerous baby toys and defective chargers.
“The company failed to diligently identify, analyze and evaluate the systemic risks linked to the sale of illegal products on its platform, as well as the resulting harm to consumers in the European Union,” concluded the European Commission, at the end of an investigation opened in October 2024.
According to the European executive, Temu thus contravened its consumer protection obligations, imposed on large online platforms by the European regulation on digital services (Digital services act, DSA).
“Temu is a very important player in the European market, with 130 million users. So when they sell banned products, they end up in the hands of a large number of Europeans,” underlined Commission Vice-President for Digital, Henna Virkkunen.
To prove this infringement, Brussels relied in particular on purchases made by its own teams, posing as ordinary customers. The operation demonstrated “that a very high percentage of the chargers ordered failed to pass basic safety tests”.
Worse, a high proportion of baby toys tested under the same conditions presented “safety risks of medium to high severity”, such as risks of suffocation or levels of harmful chemical substances exceeding authorized thresholds.
These findings, underlines Brussels, have been corroborated by surveys carried out by national authorities and other consumer associations.
The amount of the fine is, however, far from the ceiling allowed by the DSA, i.e. 6% of the total annual turnover of its parent company PDD Holdings. Last year, it generated a turnover of 53 billion euros. But, according to the Commission, this takes into account in particular the duration of the offense, which it had accused Temu of having committed less than a year ago.
AliExpress and Shein in the crosshairs
This is only the second fine imposed by Brussels under the DSA since the adoption of this powerful law in 2022, after that of 120 million euros imposed on X, Elon Musk’s social network, at the end of 2025.
Temu, which has experienced meteoric growth since its launch in Europe in 2023, thanks to a strategy of low prices, is the international version of the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut Pinduoduo, born in 2015. It offers a plethora of products: clothing, toys, decoration, tools, high-tech, etc.
The sanction requires the Chinese site to submit to Brussels by the end of August measures aimed at returning to compliance with the DSA, under penalty of periodic fines. Temu’s main Asian rivals, AliExpress and Shein, are also in Brussels’ crosshairs.
AliExpress, a subsidiary of the Chinese giant Alibaba, also risks a fine for a similar reason, unless an amicable settlement is reached. Brussels accused it of having also failed in its obligations in terms of assessing and mitigating the risks linked to illegal products. The Asian platform Shein is also suspected of several breaches of the DSA, as part of an investigation opened by Brussels in February, after the affair of child-like sex dolls sold on its site.
This sanction against Temu fell on the eve of a debate within the Commission devoted to relations between the EU and China, while the bloc has increased measures in recent months to protect its market in the face of Chinese competition often considered unfair.
This concerns both industry, where Europe denounces overcapacity maintained by significant subsidies from Beijing, and tries to respond in particular through support for “Made in Europe”, as well as online commerce, where it wants to curb the surge of low-priced products that often do not respect its standards, purchased among others on AliExpress, Shein or Temu.
The EU has thus implemented a tax of €3 per type of item on small parcels from China which will apply from July, although they were until now exempt from customs duties.
