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EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

bbc.co.uk

311–320 of 423 posts

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are parents supposed to perform safety and toxicity testing on all products they buy?

“Supposed to”? I’ll do whatever reading, and due diligence keeps my family safe. I’ll abstain from things until I’m sure. Others might choose the same.

How can you be sure? How can you get the information to know whether or not your children's toys, your medicines, your electic equipment, wall paint, food, and everything else you consume or use is safe?

You can't. So... abstain from everything? Make everything yourself - how will you have time with a job? Will you know the food you grow is safe and that your ground isn't polluted with things you can't test for at home? How about the equipment used to make that food - is the metal in that plow made of lead? Is the engine on the tractor safe?

Your due diligence is only possible because other people - usually with specialized education and/or experience - have made laws and standards to keep you safe. You don't have to personally check everything.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More niche hardware has been impossible for me to find in the EU marketplaces I got to with searches, with only availability from US ebay, and then Chinese marketplaces. Or if it does exist here it's the same used part but it costs 500€ instead of 40

ah okay, I was more raging on the people buying fast fashion crap clothes, chargers and household items. All crap, all landfill quality.

At least crap clothes do not risk setting your building on fire, unlike crap chargers. Some things are definitely more dangerous than others.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Identical chargers to temu ones are sold on amazon for 5x the price.

This talking point is everywhere in this thread. But bear in mind that you have no clue whether two chargers (for example) are the same without disassembling them and checking. Noname Chinese manufacturers are very good at producing things that are superficially similar to other things. It does not mean that two widgets that look similar actually are . The main difference with most physical stores is that those will…

> But bear in mind that you have no clue whether two chargers (for example) are the same without disassembling them and checking.

Frequently, the listing uses the exact same photo.

It's especially clear for clothes listings, as there's usually a model.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#314
post #109

Say what you may of Temu, and I do think more vetting of certain goods is a good idea, but they fill a very real need. In the part of Europe where I live, the choice is only between intermediaries for the same products coming from China. The local intermediaries sell a very limited picking at staggering margins. And when it comes to certain things, like electronic components, the choice is between importing (old) Ame…

> The ones which are truly local end up in a "call us to know more" button, no pricing info disclosed.

I cannot speak for the specific part of Europe that you are in, but in the professional Photography community, it is common practice to not list prices and instead have a "contact us" option. The reason isn't a, "Look at us, we're so exclusive and fancy!" Rather, if you list a price for various packages, people get scared off or think they are a master negotiator and can essentially get the work done for free. All of the professionals I've spoken to are happy to work with customers to find a package at an affordable price for them, or at least recommend other professionals in whatever price range they have in mind. The issue is that its exceptionally hard to convey that in a sincere, real way because if someone only sees a price of say $10 000 or whatever, they are naturally going to assume that you cannot possibly get anything for $100-$1 000.

In truth though, many are glad to try and accommodate and get people something that they will be happy with. Perhaps it ends up being 1 or 2 photos instead of an album of photos or whatever, or perhaps the photoshoot is a little bit more "low budget" than a standard one, but there is still lots of opportunity to get the client something they will be happy with. People tend to get wrapped up in the bottom line though, and just assume that they can't afford to capture a happy memory because of the cost - that's something that photographers really want to avoid because (aside from scaring off paying customers! :) ) it means less photos existing, or making it feel impossibly hard to ever show an interest in photography, which is very sad for people who live and breath it.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#315
post #109

Say what you may of Temu, and I do think more vetting of certain goods is a good idea, but they fill a very real need. In the part of Europe where I live, the choice is only between intermediaries for the same products coming from China. The local intermediaries sell a very limited picking at staggering margins. And when it comes to certain things, like electronic components, the choice is between importing (old) Ame…

> but they fill a very real need. That is not a good reason to fudge certifications and sell dangerous goods. I sympathise with your use case, but the solution is not "let’s just import whatever, as long as it’s cheap".

The GP also said "vetting of certain goods is a good idea".

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#316

Taobao and Temu are great. The quality is not always amazing, but the prices are low and many sellers even offer customisation. In Australia, the product selection is often limited, and a lot of local stores are just reselling Chinese-made products with huge markups anyway. At that point, you may as well order directly from China and save money. It also saves 10% GST.

> It also saves 10% GST. For now. Your local companies hate the competition, and will be lobbying hard to remove de minimis exemptions on imports.

Didn't this go through a few years ago?

https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/internat...

> If you are a non-resident business and you sell goods into Australia with a customs value of A$1,000 or less, GST applies and you will have to collect this from your customer and send the GST to us.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#317
Temu and Aliexpress do seem to have this covered to an extent. I have noticed significant geoblocking from both companies, mostly in searches and advertisements. I know for instance that Aliexpress has a ton of non compliant (for Australia) toy guns, they send me target ads and everything. But if I click through, they no longer exist, and search results net me nothing.

Temus comments about this being for their 2024 store are probably accurate. I honestly wish they were more dodgy tbh.

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the line should be much earlier than that. But even with this very thin line, like the parent said, the deficient products are everywhere. Just look at the recalls in any major store here (Carrefour, Action, Leclerc). And that's for the main brands/distributors, go into any bazaar or market and you'll find the exact same products you find on Aliexpress/Temu, but with 10x price markup, like the parent said. Do…

There are generally two ways governments hold companies accountable for dangerous products. The first is liability. If they're selling chargers that burn down houses, they get sued, and they don't want to get sued, so they don't want to sell chargers that burn down houses. The second is regulatory requirements. This one is generally worse. The incumbents capture the regulators to e.g. have the law require their techn…

You sure typed a lot to say 'a few kids are going to get the skin melted off their face by an exploding battery, that's just the cost of doing business!'

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I still think chargers and children's toys are exactly where the line should be drawn

I've bought both from AliExpress before and they were fine. Just required common sense.

No, you rolled the dice and won. Don't attribute to wisdom that which is explainable by very, very dumb luck

Re: EU fines Temu €200M for allowing sale of illegal products

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It also saves 10% GST. For now. Your local companies hate the competition, and will be lobbying hard to remove de minimis exemptions on imports.

Didn't this go through a few years ago? https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/internat... > If you are a non-resident business and you sell goods into Australia with a customs value of A$1,000 or less, GST applies and you will have to collect this from your customer and send the GST to us.

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