"Even Children's Toys Fail Safety Standards": EU Fines China's Temu 349 Billion Won

EU: "Insufficient Measures to Protect User Safety"

The European Union (EU) has imposed a hefty fine on Chinese e-commerce company Temu, citing the company's failure to effectively block the sale of harmful and illegal products. Temu, known for its ultra-low-priced goods, has become popular among European consumers. Currently, there are about 92 million users within the EU.

According to the Associated Press on May 28 (local time), the EU fined Temu 200 million euros (approximately 349 billion won) for failing to protect consumers from illegal products, including toxic toys and electronic devices that fall short of safety standards.

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This sanction follows the findings of an EU investigation conducted last year. At that time, the EU provisionally concluded that infant toys and small electronic products sold on the Temu platform did not comply with EU consumer safety regulations, placing consumers at high risk.

The European Commission imposed the fine under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA requires online platform operators to protect users from harmful content and illegal goods, and allows the imposition of large-scale fines in the event of violations.

Temu has protested the decision, arguing that the size of the fine is "excessive." In a statement, Temu said, "This decision is related to the European Commission’s first DSA assessment in 2024 and does not reflect the current state of our systems." The company added, "Temu has constructively cooperated with the European Commission throughout the investigation" and explained, "We have since implemented additional measures to strengthen risk assessment, platform management, and user protection systems."

The European Commission pointed out that Temu failed to properly identify, analyze, and assess the structural risks of illegal product sales on its platform and the resulting consumer harm. During the investigation, EU authorities conducted "mystery shopping" disguised as ordinary consumers. Through this process, they found numerous non-compliant products, such as electronic device chargers that did not pass basic safety tests. In addition, a large number of infant toys were discovered that either exceeded chemical content safety standards or had easily detachable parts that posed choking hazards.

The European Commission emphasized that the failure to conduct proper risk assessments is particularly serious among violations of EU digital regulations. Henna Virkkunen, Vice President of the European Commission, stated, "Risk assessment is not a mere formality." She pointed out, "Temu’s risk assessment underestimated specific risk factors, lacked detail, and was not sufficiently evidence-based. This prevented regulators, users, and the public from fully understanding the actual scale of harm that illegal products can cause." She added, "Now is the time for Temu to comply with the law."

Temu is required to submit a "remedial plan" to address the issues by the end of August. The EU stated that if Temu fails to implement this, it may impose additional fines on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.