He placed an order on Temu, his products never arrived and he received a fine of 600 euros.
This has been one of the trends in online commerce for several years. After flooding French and American physical stores and online sales sites with its manufactured products, China is now taking over the sales itself, with sites like Aliexpress and, more recently, Temu, increasingly visible on the web but also increasingly used.
With numerous highly aggressive promotions, the Temu platform has quickly established itself as an e-commerce giant. However, the site is often at the center of controversy. The "anti-fast fashion" law, passed by the Senate in June, aims to make France the first country to regulate this type of platform (Shein is also targeted) to "reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry."
Testimonies from customers trapped by this ultra-low-cost model are also starting to pour in from across Europe. Last May, for example, one of Temu's users, based in Italy, had a very bad experience with the site that cost him much more than expected.
This anonymous user shared his bad experience with Today, an Italian online daily created in 2017. His misfortune began with a simple order on the Temu website. Nothing particularly extravagant, as the user's basket contained birthday balloons, kitchen sponges, a swimsuit, a t-shirt, and a hair clip. This set cost the user a total of €42.13, and he decided to place the order and wait for delivery a few weeks later.
In reality, he had to wait three months and receive a cold shower: because it was not the order that arrived then, but a customs notice, issued with a fine worth 618 euros, almost 15 times the total value of the initial order.
Why such a hefty fine? According to Italian customs, the user was identified as an importer of goods. As soon as his order arrived at customs control, they quickly discovered that several of the items ordered were in fact counterfeit. The T-shirt and hair clip, in particular, imitated Disney brand items from the films "Monsters, Inc." and "Inside Out." By bringing these items into Italy, the user allegedly violated industrial property and copyright laws.
The bill is therefore rather steep for the Temu user, since the law in force in Italy stipulates that this type of offense can result in a fine ranging from 300 to 7,000 euros. The Temu site quickly responded to the Italian media and reacted to the controversy by removing the offending products from sale. However, buyers are encouraged to remain cautious when ordering items from such sales sites where the prices are sometimes too good to be true.
L'Internaute
