The European Commission announced on Friday that after surpassing a critical user threshold, the e-commerce platform Temu must adhere to stricter EU regulations on online content. On that day, the EU included Temu, a fashion e-commerce retailer owned by the Pinduoduo Group, in the category of Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), which also includes Amazon, the META platform, and TikTok.
According to Reuters, under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), companies with over 45 million users are designated as VLOPs, requiring them to take more measures to combat illegal or harmful content and counterfeit products on their platforms.
Temu entered the EU market last April, and in the six months leading up to March 31, the average monthly active users of Temu in EU countries was approximately 75 million.
Senior EU officials, who are part of the EU’s technical regulatory body, stated in a release, “After being designated as a Very Large Online Platform today, Temu must comply with the strictest rules established by the Digital Services Act within four months of receiving the notice (by the end of September).”
The rules under the Digital Services Act for Very Large Online Platforms include obligations for the platform to assess and mitigate systemic risks related to its services, prohibit counterfeit, unsafe, or illegal products, as well as items that infringe intellectual property rights from being listed or sold.
Companies that violate the Digital Services Act could face fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover.