The European Commission said in a statement on Monday that it had accepted the action plan submitted by the Chinese retailer Temu to remedy its breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Union's rulebook for online platforms. The case leaves the punitive phase and enters a period of monitoring.
In May, the Commission had fined the platform €200 million — about US$224 million — for not doing enough to stop the sale of illegal products to European consumers. Among the items cited by investigators were dangerous baby toys and faulty chargers. The formal investigation had been opened in October 2024, and its conclusion was that the company had failed to properly identify and address the risks specific to its own marketplace.
The five measures
The plan accepted by Brussels sets out five obligations, all pointing at a single idea: the DSA requires a platform to assess the risks created by the way it operates, not merely to take listings down after a complaint. They are:
- a platform-specific risk analysis;
- reliable measurements of whether the safeguards actually work — and reinforcement of them if they do not;
- an assessment of weaknesses in the content moderation system;
- scrutiny of the recommender systems, which, in the Commission's words, "may amplify the spread of illegal goods";
- an examination of deliberate manipulation of the service by sellers and of the potential for illegal content to spread rapidly at scale.
The deadlines
Temu has four months to complete an interim risk assessment covering the six-month period ending 30 November 2026. After implementing the measures, it must also submit, within four months, a report from an independent third-party audit.
The European Board for Digital Services, which brings together the national regulators, found the plan "insufficiently detailed" to show that the breach had been fully resolved. The Commission says it took those concerns into account and clarified the implementation requirements — and that it will monitor precisely the areas where the Board sought more clarity. Its next assessment will check whether the promised measures were actually carried out and whether the company's risk analysis has improved.
What the company says
Temu, owned by PDD Holdings, welcomed the decision and thanked the Commission for its "constructive engagement", describing the plan as evidence of its commitment to compliance infrastructure. The platform has about 130 million users in the European Union.
The decision lands in a year when the bloc tightened its grip on low-value ecommerce by another route: since the start of July the EU has charged a €3 fee on low-value parcels, which previously entered duty-free when worth less than €150.
With information from Reuters, Euronews and Greek Reporter.
