Do we like Temu?
Online marketplace selling ultra-cheap goods from third-party sellers; run by Whaleco, part of PDD Holdings (Chinese-owned).
Our score: 2 out of 10. We wouldn't back them. A €200m EU fine over unsafe products, a US penalty, and open forced-labour questions outweigh the cheap prices and the recent fixes.
Temu is the cheap-everything app run by Whaleco, which belongs to PDD Holdings. The US arm is Whaleco Inc. PDD also owns the Chinese platform Pinduoduo. Its CEO, Chen Lei, was named in US state attorneys general letters about Temu.
The big one is Europe. In May 2026 the European Commission fined Temu €200m under the Digital Services Act. It said Temu's risk assessment badly underestimated how often shoppers would meet illegal items. Mystery-shopping tests found chargers failing basic safety checks and baby toys with chemical or suffocation risks.
Temu called the fine disproportionate and said it relates to a 2024 assessment. On 26 October 2026 the Commission accepted Temu's five-measure action plan. The fine stands, and Temu must do an interim risk assessment and an independent audit.
In the US, Temu agreed to pay $2m to settle allegations that it broke the INFORM Consumers Act. The DOJ and FTC said it didn't properly show seller details or give consistent ways to report suspicious listings. A House committee also said it did next to nothing on forced labour in its supply chain, and Temu says it bans forced labour.
We give it a 2. The fixes are real but came after regulators forced them, and the safety and supply-chain concerns are serious. Cheap prices don't make up for that. If the audits go well, the score could rise.