Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The European Commission has imposed a €200 million ($232 million) fine on Chinese e‑commerce giant Temu for breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA), the bloc’s flagship online regulation. The penalty, announced on 28 May 2026, is the largest ever issued under the DSA and follows a formal investigation launched in October 2024.
Temu’s 2024 risk assessment, which very large online platforms are legally required to file, “falls short of the standards laid out in the DSA”, the Commission said in a statement. The company’s analysis was based on generic information about the e‑commerce sector rather than specific evidence about its own service, and it “seriously underestimated how often EU consumers are likely to encounter illegal items”.
The Commission’s findings were partly supported by a “mystery shopping” exercise conducted by an independent testing organisation. The tests showed that a very high percentage of chargers selected from Temu failed basic safety checks; in some cases, devices overheated and caught fire. A high percentage of baby toys posed medium‑to‑high safety risks, either because they contained chemicals above legal limits or had detachable parts that could cause choking. Jewellery and accessories were also found to carry risks of mislabelling, non‑compliance with European standards or the presence of hazardous materials.
The Commission further found that Temu did not properly assess how its recommender systems and product promotion programmes by affiliated influencers could amplify the dissemination of illegal products. Executive Vice‑President Henna Virkkunen said risk assessments are “not box‑ticking exercises” but the “backbone” of the DSA, and criticised Temu’s submission for lacking specificity, solid evidence and comprehensiveness.
Temu, which entered the European market in 2023 and now reaches about 113 million EU consumers, said it disagrees with the decision and considers the fine “disproportionate”. The company noted that the penalty relates to its first DSA assessment in 2024 and “does not reflect the current state of our systems”, adding that it has since taken further steps to strengthen risk assessment, platform governance and user protection.
Under the DSA, fines can reach up to 6% of a company’s global annual turnover. The Commission based the fine on Temu’s 2025 revenue of €53 billion, putting the maximum potential penalty at roughly €2.8 billion.
Temu has until 28 August 2026 to submit a detailed action plan outlining how it will remedy its risk‑assessment failures. The European Board for Digital Services will have one month to evaluate the plan, after which the Commission will have a further month to issue a final ruling and set an implementation timeline. Failure to comply could result in periodic penalty payments.
Separate investigations into Temu remain ongoing, covering the spread of illegal products, recommender systems and addictive design practices, leaving open the possibility of further fines. The penalty is only the second non‑compliance decision under the DSA; the first was a €120 million fine against Elon Musk’s social‑media platform X issued in December 2025.
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