New front for Temu, the Chinese online sales platform. Brussels has threatened to open a new investigation, this time for violating the European Union’s consumer protection law, just a week after the bloc opened a file against the firm for not doing enough to combat sales of counterfeit products. and illegal.
The European Commission and national regulators in Belgium, Germany and Ireland jointly demanded that platform stops “problematic practices” that can mislead consumers and violate EU product safety regulations, as reported in a statement this Friday.
Suspected activities include publishing discounts and fake reviews, forcing customers to play a “wheel of fortune” to obtain discounts while hiding essential information about their conditions, display misleading information and hide contact details in which customers can submit questions or complaints.
“Although we have gained popularity among many consumers in a relatively short time, we are still a very young platform (less than two years in the EU) and we are actively learning and adapting to local requirements,” Temu said in an emailed statement. to the agency Bloomberg. “We will cooperate fully with this investigationas we believe such scrutiny benefits consumers, merchants and the platform in the long term.”
The demands are added to the platform regulatory issues of e-commerce, which also faces another investigation in the EU under the European Digital Services Law. Temu, owned by China’s PDD Holdings, has become very popular for its flash sales and its ‘gamified’ offering modelthat is, with elements similar to those of a video game, something that some experts point out that attracts users and can increase its use. The firm is one of a series of large technology companies that the EU has put under the scrutiny of its Competition Commission, which is fining companies on both sides of the planet for activities that they consider irregular or harmful to consumers.
The EU gave Temu a month to propose solutions to the Commission’s consumer protection concerns. If its answers do not convince Brussels, the national regulators of the Twenty-seven may fine the firm based on the income it obtains in their respective countries.
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