All of us like a
whole lot! Nonetheless, these of us who know (a bit extra) about shopper rights and
shopper regulation are conscious that low-cost items and companies typically come at a excessive
value, by infringing our shopper rights.
TEMU, the
on-line market that has gained recognition within the EU, has not too long ago got here underneath
the highlight. This month, BEUC, The European Shopper Organisation, has taken
a major step by initiating an enforcement marketing campaign towards TEMU, named ‘Taming Temu’. The
marketing campaign is a response to TEMU’s violation of its shopper safety
obligations underneath the Digital Companies Act. The recognized
breaches embrace:
- failing to offer enough traceability of
the merchants that promote on its platform and thereby to make sure that the merchandise
bought to EU customers conform to EU regulation. - utilizing manipulative practices resembling darkish
patterns to get customers, for instance, to spend greater than they could
initially wish to, or to complicate the method of closing down their account. - failing to offer transparency about the way it
recommends merchandise to customers.
BEUC filed a criticism with the European Fee,
whereas 17 of BEUC’s members filed the identical criticism with their competent
nationwide authorities. For a extra environment friendly and efficient enforcement
motion, BEUC asks the Digital
Companies Coordinators of every nation (nationwide authorities accountable for
implementing the EU’s Digital Companies Act) to switch the complaints to the
Irish authority, TEMU’s nation of registration. It could then be as much as the
Irish authority to take swift motion to stop additional shopper hurt.
Given the quick
progress within the variety of TEMU customers, it’s potential that the platform would go
the edge of 45 million customers per 30 days, which might then classify it as a
‘very giant on-line platform’ and grant the Fee competence to implement the
Digital Companies Act.
On condition that shopper regulation enforcement, particularly towards
giant platforms, was much less efficient previously (see as an illustration our reviews right here and right here), a concerted EU motion is a welcome resolution.
