Industry representatives have identified unfair business practices by Temu. Recently, “countless violations” have been proven and documented, said trade association managing director Rainer Will to the APA. The online marketplace violates several provisions of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG).
The trade association sees false claims about the limited availability of goods, misleading information about price reductions and false claims about alleged shortages of goods. According to the interest groups, Temu, among other things, “obviously arbitrarily displays so-called RRPs, i.e. non-binding manufacturer price recommendations, which are supposedly significantly undercut by the actual selling price”.
30,000 packages daily
“In Austria alone, 30,000 packages arrive every day from Asian online platforms that do not adhere to the applicable rules,” criticized Will. “The unfair practices outlined presumably led to millions of sales, which are causing lasting damage to Austria as a domestic business location,” the trade association wrote in its complaint to the BWB. Action must be taken against the business practices used by Temu “in order to ensure fair competition on the Austrian and European market.”
At the end of June, the European Commission asked the Chinese online retailers Temu and Shein for more information on how they are dealing with illegal products and manipulating consumers. The Brussels authority made a request for information on the basis of a new EU law on digital services (Digital Services Act). According to this, the Chinese companies are to provide, among other things, more information on the measures they are taking to protect consumers.
