€200 million Temu fine highlights chemical risks in online products
An eye-watering €200 million fine imposed by the European Commission on the online sales platform Temu under the Digital Services Act (DSA) provides a clear signal that online marketplaces are now firmly within the scope of product safety and chemicals compliance scrutiny. While the DSA is often viewed as a digital regulation focused on platform governance, its practical application is increasingly intersecting with traditional product safety regimes – including those governing hazardous chemicals in consumer goods.
The European Commission’s investigation, supported by test purchasing and laboratory analysis, identified a high prevalence of unsafe and non-compliant products being made available to EU consumers via Temu, a major online platform. Of particular relevance to chemicals regulation, a number of baby toys were found to pose medium to high safety risks due to the presence of hazardous substances exceeding EU legal limits.
This finding is significant for two reasons. First, it reinforces the ongoing concern that non-compliant chemical content remains widespread in consumer products sold online. Secondly, it demonstrates that enforcement is no longer limited to manufacturers, importers and distributors in the traditional sense, but is increasingly targeting the systems and controls operated by online platforms themselves.
Importantly, the Commission’s action did not turn solely on the presence of unsafe products. Rather, it focused on the platform’s failure to adequately assess and mitigate systemic risks associated with the sale of illegal goods.
Under the DSA, very large online platforms are required to conduct evidence based risk assessments covering the dissemination of illegal content and products, and to implement proportionate mitigation measures. The Commission concluded that the platform’s risk assessment relied on generic industry level data and failed to reflect the specific risks arising from its own marketplace. This distinction signals that compliance will be judged not only on outcomes, but on the robustness of internal governance, data and control frameworks used to identify and manage risk.
For businesses operating across chemicals supply chains, the fine has important implications. The presence of substances above permitted limits in consumer products – whether under REACH or sector-specific legislation such as toy safety rules – is no longer just a matter of product compliance. It is becoming evidence of systemic failure where those products are distributed at scale via online platforms.
The Commission’s findings on toys containing chemicals above legal thresholds align with wider EU evidence that chemical hazards are a leading cause of product safety alerts, particularly in categories such as toys and cosmetics.
In practice, this means that:
Suppliers placing products on online marketplaces must ensure that chemical compliance is demonstrably robust and traceable
Importers and fulfilment service providers remain particularly exposed where products originate from outside the EU
Online platforms themselves must ensure they have designed and implemented effective controls, including due diligence, monitoring and removal mechanisms
Digital platforms are clearly no longer neutral intermediaries, and chemical compliance is no longer confined to traditional supply chain actors.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1178