The European Commission accuses Temu of breaching the DSA by failing to do enough to stop the sale of illegal products on its platform, in preliminary findings
European Commission says ecommerce group failing to do enough to tackle sale of illegal products
Context & Ripple Effects
Temu’s DSA exposure has built from coordinated consumer complaints and its designation as a very large online platform, followed by the Commission’s 2024 decision to open formal proceedings over allegedly non-compliant goods and platform design.
These preliminary findings move that investigation to an enforcement-stage assessment focused on illegal-product controls. They also fit a closely related Commission case in which AliExpress was preliminarily accused of inadequate illegal-product controls.
First-order effects
- Temu must respond to the Commission’s preliminary assessment and demonstrate that its systems for detecting and removing illegal listings meet DSA requirements.
- The finding puts Temu’s seller oversight and product-listing controls under immediate regulatory scrutiny, rather than treating illicit goods as solely a merchant-level issue.
Second-order effects
- Other large marketplaces serving EU shoppers face a clearer signal that product-safety and illegal-goods controls are a platform compliance responsibility; the parallel AliExpress case reinforces that pressure.
- More intensive verification, monitoring and removal processes could raise the operating burden for marketplace sellers and for Temu’s platform operations.
Third-order effects
- If this enforcement pattern holds, EU marketplace regulation will further shift liability toward distribution platforms’ ability to prevent unlawful goods, not just react to individual reports.
- The outcome will help define how concretely the DSA’s risk-management duties apply to high-volume cross-border marketplaces, with consequences for their compliance design across the sector.
The trend: The case is part of a broader EU shift toward holding major online marketplaces accountable for the safety and legality of goods distributed through their platforms.