The Danish Minister for the Environment Magnus Heunicke has warned the Danes from buying from Chinese webshops such as Temu on 5 May 2024. He claimed many of the products sold on Temu do not follow the regulation standards of EU and the products can therefore be potentially harmful towards the consumer. Furthermore, he advised Danes against generally buying from non-EU webshops.
The Danish minister commented on the situation only a week after Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment Andreas Bjelland Eriksen told the Norwegians not to buy their clothes from Temu. He added, that the quality of the clothing is bad, and furthermore the webshop leads to an overproduction of goods.
The Danish Consumer Council Tænk has multiple times criticized Temu for their mass production of goods, which according to them can be harmful to the environment. They also accused Temu of selling products that contain harmful chemicals.
The Italian consumer organization Altroconsumo made a random sample of Temu’s products, where 15 of the 28 tested products did not live up to the European Union’s product safety requirements. Furthermore, Altroconsumo concluded, that the products shouldn’t even be sold in the EU.
In January 2024, Temu sent a written statement to the Danish media TV2, where they stated, that they uphold the legislature in the countries, they operate in. Additionally, they wrote, that the 15 products tested by Altroconsumo would be removed from their website.
Temu has gotten very popular amongst Nordic online shoppers in a short amount of time. In the first quarter of the year, Temu was the third-most popular online shop amongst Danish consumers. Temu operates differently than many european webshops, as they do not produce anything themselves. Instead they order products in different factories. According to a Danish expert, this could be the reason as to why, the company does not have full control over its sold products.
Source: TV2
