European shopper teams accused Thursday Chinese e-commerce retailer Temu of utilizing “manipulative techniques” to pressure customers to spend extra and different violations of a landmark EU tech legislation.
One of the fastest-growing apps, Temu solely entered the EU market in April 2023 and says it has, on common, round 75 million month-to-month energetic customers within the 27-country bloc.
Europe’s BEUC umbrella shopper rights group filed a grievance with the European Commission, whereas 17 member organizations in Europe, together with France, Germany and Spain, have carried out the identical with nationwide authorities.
The teams accuse Temu of “failing to protect consumers and for using manipulative practices which are illegal,” often called darkish patterns, and demanded an investigation.
They consider Temu is distorting or impairing customers’ skill to make “free and informed decisions” whereas purchasing on-line, in violation of the EU’s mammoth on-line content material legislation, often called the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Under the DSA, all digital platforms should take away unlawful content material shortly, be extra clear about how they use customers’ knowledge and make sure the security of customers on-line.
The platform fails to supply sufficient details about merchants on Temu, “frequently leaving consumers in the dark about who they purchase products from,” BEUC stated.
And there’s not sufficient details about how its “opaque” suggestion system works, it added, which is obligatory underneath the DSA.
Temu, owned by China’s PDD Holdings, has already come underneath stress in Europe.
German shopper teams warned Temu earlier this yr about comparable points, which led to the platform saying it will now not show notices telling customers to “Hurry up! Over 126 people have this item in their shopping cart.”
It has confronted fierce scrutiny elsewhere, together with in Asia and the United States.
South Korean regulators in April started investigating Temu on suspicion of false promoting and unfair practices.
The EU is anticipated so as to add Temu to its listing of “very large” digital platforms underneath the DSA, which is able to pressure the corporate to adjust to stricter guidelines, together with offering common details about how it’s mitigating dangers.
Brussels has already added Chinese-founded on-line retailer Shein to its listing, which additionally consists of AliExpress, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, amongst 23 different platforms.
Source: www.dailysabah.com