Temu’s practices found to breach EU consumer laws

Article summary

The European Commission has notified Temu that several of its practices breach EU consumer law and has ordered it to bring those practices into compliance. In particular, a co-ordinated investigation by the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) Network, the Commission, and national authorities found that Temu was creating false impressions that products were offered at a discount, pressuring customers into purchasing products by making false claims about limited supplies and purchase deadlines, and displaying incomplete and incorrect information about consumers' rights regarding returns and refunds. In addition, Temu forced customers to play a ‘spin the fortune wheel’ game to access the marketplace, used fake reviews, and made it difficult to access its contact details. Temu has one month to reply to the CPC Network’s findings and to propose commitments on how the identified issues will be addressed. Should Temu fail to address the concerns, national authorities will be able to take enforcement action, such as imposing fines.