The European Commission has fined online marketplace Temu €200 million for offering illegal products on its platform and for the resulting harm to EU consumers.
“Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not comprehensive”, said EC executive vice-president Henna Virkkunen: “It leaves regulators, users, and the public in the dark about the true scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu. Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.”
The EU executive says Temu’s risk assessment of 2024 falls short of the standards laid out in the Digital Services Act (DSA), for the following reasons:
- It is based on general information about risks concerning the eCommerce sector as a whole, rather than on specific evidence about Temu’s own service, including public reports and testing.
- It seriously underestimated how often EU consumers are likely to encounter illegal items. Evidence from a mystery shopping exercise included in the Commission’s investigation shows that a very high percentage of the selected chargers failed basic safety tests, while a high percentage of tested baby toys posed safety risks of medium to high severity, as they contain chemicals exceeding legal safety limits or pose suffocation hazards due to detachable parts.
- It did not properly assess how the design of its service – including recommender systems and product promotion programmes by affiliated influencers – could amplify dissemination risks of illegal products.
Under the DSA, designated ‘Very Large Online Platforms’ are required to diligently assess systemic risks linked to their services and adopt corresponding mitigation measures.
The fine issued by the Commission was calculated taking into account the nature of the infringement, its gravity in terms of affected EU users, and its duration. Failing to conduct proper risk assessments – one of the cornerstones of the DSA’s architecture – is a particularly serious infringement of the DSA.
The Commission had opened opened formal proceedings against Temu in October 2024, including on its obligation to assess systemic risks relating to the dissemination of illegal products on its service. The Commission adopted preliminary findings in July 2025 and is closing them with a non-compliance decision today.
Temu now has until 28 August 2026 to submit an action plan to the Commission, as required by Article 75 of the DSA. The plan must set out measures to remedy the breach of its risk-assessment obligations. The European Board for Digital Services will have one month from receipt of the plan to issue its opinion. The Commission will then have a further month to adopt its final decision and set a reasonable period for implementation.
Failure to comply with the non-compliance decision may lead to periodic penalty payments. The Commission stresses that it continues to engage with Temu to ensure compliance with the decision and with the DSA more generally.
