EU fines Temu for illegal products

The European Union has fined Chinese-owned online retailer Temu €200 million after investigators found illegal goods for sale on the platform, including baby toys deemed unsafe and chargers that failed basic electrical safety tests. According to the BBC, the European Commission said Temu did not properly identify and assess “systemic risks” tied to the products it distributes to consumers across the bloc. The case has been running since October 2024, when Temu was placed under scrutiny as a designated “Very Large Online Platform” under EU rules.

The investigation leaned on a mystery-shopping exercise carried out by an independent testing organisation, a method that turns platform scale into a measurable sample of what arrives at a customer’s door. The Commission said a high proportion of chargers bought through Temu failed safety tests, while many baby toys posed risks ranging from chemicals above legal limits to small detachable parts that can create suffocation hazards. In practice, this is the business model of cross-border marketplaces laid bare: a flood of low-cost listings, thin vetting at the point of sale, and liability that becomes legible only when regulators start buying the products themselves.

The fine is also a price signal about how Brussels intends to police commerce that is routed through apps rather than traditional import channels. Temu is required not only to pay the penalty but to submit an action plan by 28 August 2025 describing how it will fix the failures; the Commission then has two months to decide whether the response is sufficient. That timetable matters because marketplaces can change faster than rulebooks: sellers churn, listings reappear under new names, and compliance can become a documentation exercise unless enforcement is repeated and visible.

Temu said it respects the need for clear and consistent rules but disagrees with the decision and considers the fine disproportionate, adding that it is reviewing options. For the EU, the case sits alongside earlier Digital Services Act enforcement, which the BBC notes has already produced at least one other major fine, against Elon Musk’s X in December 2024. The common thread is that large platforms are being treated as infrastructure: if they profit from distribution at scale, they are expected to carry the cost of monitoring at scale.

The Commission’s file now comes with a deadline and a number attached to it. The next test is whether Temu’s “action plan” changes what mystery shoppers can buy.