After fining Temu €200 million, the European Commission has accepted a plan that requires the Chinese-owned online marketplace to examine whether its recommendations make unsafe goods more likely to reach EU shoppers.
Why Was Temu Fined?
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), Temu had to assess how likely shoppers were to come across illegal products on its marketplace. The Commission fined the company on 28 May because its 2024 assessment relied too heavily on general information about online shopping and paid too little attention to the products its own customers were being shown.
When an independent testing organisation bought products on the Commission’s behalf, many of the chargers it selected failed basic safety checks. Tests on baby toys also found chemicals above legal limits in some items and detachable parts that posed a suffocation risk in others.
It should be noted that those results couldn’t tell the Commission what proportion of Temu’s catalogue was unsafe, but they did give it some concrete examples of hazards that shoppers faced. Taken together with the other evidence, the findings led the Commission to conclude that Temu had seriously underestimated the risk of EU customers encountering illegal goods.
Why Do Recommendations Matter?
The recommendations are important because a shopper looking for a replacement charger, for example, might find an unsafe model in the search results. If Temu also recommends that charger to people browsing for laptops, the same product could reach a much larger audience before anyone reports a problem.
The Commission raised a similar concern about Temu’s programme for affiliated influencers, whose posts can draw attention to products their followers might otherwise never see. Temu now needs to examine whether its recommendations give illegal listings more visibility and whether sellers can deliberately use its promotional features to reach more shoppers.
What Has Temu Agreed To Change?
Under the plan accepted on 26 October, Temu has agreed to five measures, starting with what the Commission calls “a platform-specific risk analysis”. This means using up-to-date evidence from its own marketplace to understand which risks shoppers face and whether its safeguards are working. For example, if Temu removes more unsafe listings than before, that could mean its checks have improved. A more useful measure for shoppers would be how many people saw those listings before they came down.
To understand how an unsafe product can reach so many people, Temu will examine what its automated checks and human reviewers might miss. It will also look at what happens while a listing is still live, including whether its recommendations bring the product to more shoppers and whether sellers can deliberately exploit its features to promote illegal goods.
Who Will Check Whether It Works?
When the European Board for Digital Services reviewed the plan in September, it found Temu’s proposals only partly adequate because some lacked enough detail for the Board to judge whether they would work. The Commission clarified what it expected before accepting the plan and says it will pay particular attention to the concerns the Board raised.
Temu has four months to put the measures in place. As part of that work, it must assess the risks shoppers faced on its marketplace over the six months ending on 30 November 2026. An independent auditor will then examine the measures, and Temu must send the Commission the audit report within four months of putting them into effect.
If the auditor recommends changes, Temu must report back within a month on what it has done about them. The Commission’s decision therefore settles what Temu must do, but the assessment and audit should give a clearer picture of whether shoppers are better protected as a result.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
For a UK business replacing a laptop charger, a marketplace recommendation can save someone a few minutes of searching, but it tells them little about whether the charger is safe or suitable for that laptop. Before ordering, staff should check who made it, who is selling it and whether it meets the laptop manufacturer’s specifications. Keeping the model number with the purchase record also makes it easier to find the charger if it is later recalled.
For businesses running a marketplace, withdrawing an unsafe product should prompt a closer look at how customers found it. If most shoppers saw it through recommendations, that tells the operator where its checks need attention. It is also worth checking whether another seller has listed the same item, or customers could still be buying it after the original listing has gone.
That is why the recommendation system matters as much to this case as the products themselves. The clearest sign that Temu’s plan is working would be that fewer shoppers are shown unsafe goods in the first place.
