Commission fines Temu €200M for breaching the Digital Services Act

MMrDresden about 3 hours ago 37 commentsRead Article on ec.europa.eu

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Discussion (37 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

big85•about 2 hours ago

> 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.

> Under the DSA, designated Very Large Online Platforms are required to diligently assess systemic risks linked to their services and adopt corresponding mitigation measures.

TheJoeMan•17 minutes ago

I'd be curious to see a breakdown between the "toxic chemicals" and "suffocation hazards" categories, as my intuition says it's mostly the latter and often bunk. The other day I was watching the TV above the Walmart customer service desk that displays product recalls, and multiple recalled products were a motorized bassinet, but the wireless remote control has a battery compartment that could be opened and then the battery swallowed. To a layman or (I assume) Chinese inventor, that seems overly burdensome as I am certain that same household would have other wireless remotes.

super256•3 minutes ago

[delayed]

pjc50•about 2 hours ago

Interesting that this is under the DSA, since if they're the "importer" by mailing parcels to the EU it would also be covered by long standing rules on CE marking.

It's good to know that someone's actually checking this stuff. Self-reported compliance like CE always makes me wonder if I'm a mug for trying to comply honestly with the rules when it would be easy not to.

throwa356262•about 2 hours ago

Is temu much worse than amazon here?

embedding-shape•about 1 hour ago

Probably yeah, Amazon already had long exposure to the regulations from EU and European countries, they surely have some won lessons from these years, compared to Temu which is relatively new and might still be learning how things work, apparently. Temu is what, 3-4 years old or something?

bonzini•26 minutes ago

"compared to Temu that does not give a damn by design" would be more accurate.

AndrewDucker•about 1 hour ago

Certainly in the UK, we don't have the same issues with terrible Chinese fakes that I hear about from US Amazon users.

maccard•40 minutes ago

We don’t have the fakes problem but Amazon in the UK has a growing amount of stuff that is just resale of stuff from temu. I suspect if you tested the top 10 chargers on Amazon that weren’t anker, you’d find the same problems.

philipwhiuk•41 minutes ago

Amazon UK these days is definitely full of Chinese reproductions and drop shipped knock offs.

Whether they're dangerous I don't know, I've not tried them.

Hamuko•24 minutes ago

I don’t know about fakes, but browsing Amazon DE feels like browsing AliExpress when looking for any technology products. Especially cables, adapters and such.

ThePowerOfFuet•10 minutes ago

Yes.

HPsquared•about 2 hours ago

There's a lot of work to be done.

jp3141•about 2 hours ago

Correct URL: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_...

penr0se•33 minutes ago

Thank you

humanpotato•about 1 hour ago

Actual link: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_...

spwa4•43 minutes ago

So they let sellers from china, and reseller platforms, get away with violating safety laws for 3 years (just Temu), have 50 BILLION euro in revenue (about 3-4 billion in profit for the platform itself) from those products and then charge them 200 Million for the crime?

Can European companies demand equal treatment? Wait, no, I know the answer to that.

gib444•about 2 hours ago

> Temu 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.

So they're just threatening a fine at this stage? It's not clear to me

purerandomness•about 2 hours ago

Since this is under the "Next Steps" section, it's pretty clear to me that the €200M fine is a fixed one-time fine that was issued now, but further, repeated fines ("periodic") will be issued if the hazard is not removed.

nolok•about 2 hours ago

No, it's a fine, but the fine doesn't absolve you from fixing it too so it stops. You have this delay to submit a plan for how and on what timeline you will fix it. If you don't do it, or take too long, we will keep fining you, increasingly.

An exemple what how in the old microsoft case they ended up puttin a daily fine for non compliance until microsoft balked back and fixed it (after they tried to act tough and pretended to ignore them).

The end goal ultimately is to get it fixed.

bcjdjsndon•about 1 hour ago

How do they enforce a fine on a Chinese company? What if temu says "up yours"?

robin_reala•about 1 hour ago

I visited Temu from Sweden and clicked on the terms of use, this is the first line:

1.1 These Terms are between you and Whaleco Technology Limited, an Irish company.

mdrzn•about 1 hour ago

you won't be able to sell in the EU market anymore

seydor•about 1 hour ago

I've been buying everything i can think of from temu for a year now , in anticipation of it surely being outlawed in the EU. That time has come.

jonkoops•20 minutes ago

Well, enjoy your plastic toys and clothes that are full of known carcinogens I guess.

nutjob2•20 minutes ago

It's not being outlawed but made more expensive via a 3 euro fee attached to every item purchased.