LONDON (AP) \u2014 Chinese online retailer Temu was accused by European Union watchdogs on Monday of failing to prevent the sale of illegal products on its platform. <\/p>\n
The preliminary findings follow an investigation opened last year<\/a> under the bloc\u2019s Digital Services Act<\/a>. It\u2019s a wide-ranging rulebook that requires online platforms to do more to keep internet users safe, with the threat of hefty fines. <\/p>\n The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc\u2019s executive branch, said its investigation found \u201ca high risk for consumers in the EU to encounter illegal products\u201d on Temu\u2019s site. <\/p>\n Investigators carried out a \u201cmystery shopping exercise\u201d that found \u201cnon-compliant\u201d products on Temu, including baby toys and small electronics, it said. <\/p>\n Temu said in a brief statement that it \u201cwill continue to cooperate fully with the Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n The commission didn\u2019t specify why exactly the products were illegal, but noted that a surge in online sales in the bloc also came with a parallel rise in unsafe or counterfeit goods. <\/p>\n EU regulators said when they opened the investigation that they would look into whether Temu was doing enough to crack down on \u201crogue traders\u201d selling \u201cnon-compliant goods\u201d amid concerns that they are able to swiftly reappear after being suspended.<\/p>\n In its preliminary findings, the Commission found that Temu could have had \u201cinadequate mitigation measures\u201d because the company was using an \u201cinaccurate\u201d risk assessment that relied on general industry information, rather than specifics about its own marketplace. <\/p>\n \u201cWe shop online because we trust that products sold in our Single Market are safe and comply with our rules,\u201d Henna Virkkunen, the EU\u2019s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a news release. \u201cIn our preliminary view, Temu is far from assessing risks for its users at the standards required by the Digital Services Act. <\/p>\n