The European Commission has imposed a €200 million fine on the Chinese platform Temu — the highest penalty to date under the Digital Services Act (DSA). A mystery shopping exercise carried out as part of the investigation revealed hazardous chargers as well as baby toys containing chemicals above legally permitted safety limits. At the same time, a new fixed customs duty of €3 per item on consignments valued at less than €150 from non‑EU countries will come into force on 1 July 2026, primarily targeting the influx of low‑value parcels.
TEMU UNDER SCRUTINY: Why the European Commission imposed a record fine
Chinese online retailer Temu has become one of the key players in European e‑commerce. In 2024, the European Commission designated it as a so‑called Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This status entails specific legal obligations — the platform must continuously identify, analyse and assess systemic risks associated with its operations and adopt measures to mitigate them. It is precisely in this area that Temu failed.
Following an investigation, which included a mystery shopping exercise, the Commission found that although Temu formally carried out risk assessments, these were wholly inadequate. Instead of analysing the specific conditions of its own platform, the company relied on general industry data. The results of the mystery shopping exercise are telling: a very high percentage of the tested chargers failed basic safety tests, and a significant share of baby toys posed safety risks. The toys contained chemicals exceeding legal limits or posed a suffocation risk due to parts that came off. As a result, consumers in the EU are highly likely to encounter illegal and unsafe products on the Temu platform.
The fine of €200 million (approximately CZK 4.8 billion) was imposed on 28 May 2026. Notably, the DSA allows for penalties of up to 6% of a company’s worldwide annual turnover — meaning that, with Temu’s reported turnover of just under €54 billion in 2024, the Commission could have imposed a significantly higher fine. Nevertheless, this remains the highest penalty ever imposed under the DSA. For comparison, social media platform X was fined €120 million in December 2025 for shortcomings in transparency.
Temu considers the fine disproportionate and stresses that since 2024 it has taken measures to strengthen risk assessment and platform governance, arguing that the Commission’s decision fails to take these measures into account. The Commission has nevertheless set a deadline for Temu: by 28 August 2026, it must submit a remedial action plan, which the Commission will assess within the following two months. If Temu fails to fulfil this obligation, it will face periodic penalty payments.
What does the TEMU case mean for the enforcement of the DSA?
The Temu case goes far beyond a single fine. It represents only the second practical application of the DSA since it fully entered into force in 2024, while also clearly defining what the Commission expects from online platforms. Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stated that risk assessment is a cornerstone of the DSA, and that platforms must ensure robust systems are in place on their online marketplaces to combat illegal products. An assessment based solely on general industry data — rather than on the specific conditions of a platform — is not sufficient in the Commission’s view.
For the market, this sends a clear signal: platforms operating marketplaces within the EU must implement effective risk assessment systems and bear actual — not merely formal — liability for products offered by third-party sellers. At the same time, the case raises the question of whether financial penalties alone are sufficient to bring about real change.
New customs duty from 1 July 2026: The end of duty-free imports of low-value goods
Alongside the enforcement of the DSA, the EU is also advancing on the customs front. From 1 July 2026, the exemption that allowed duty-free imports of goods from third countries in consignments with a declared value of less than €150 will cease to apply. It will be replaced by a fixed duty of €3, charged on each individual item in a consignment in accordance with the customs tariff. In other words, the duty is not levied on the consignment as a whole, but on each type of goods it contains.
In practice, this means that a consignment containing a charger, headphones and a phone case will not be subject to a single duty of €3, but €9, as it consists of three different types of goods. Conversely, where a consignment contains multiple units of the same type of goods, the duty is applied only once. The new rules were approved by the Council of the EU in February 2026. They apply to goods entering the EU via the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) system, in which non‑EU sellers are registered, and which covers approximately 93% of all e‑commerce flows to the EU.
According to the Council, the previous duty-free regime led to unfair competition vis-à-vis EU-based sellers, posed health and safety risks to consumers, and resulted in a high level of fraud. This was, in fact, also demonstrated by the investigation in the TEMU case. The new duty is conceived as a temporary soolution, expected to remain in place until 1 July 2028, pending the introduction of a permanent solution adopted in November 2025. That solution is intended to abolish the €150 threshold altogether and introduce EU customs tariffs for individual products across the board, without a value limit.
For Czech consumers, the impact is tangible. Temu, Shein and AliExpress are among the most visited online shops in the Czech Republic — two out of three Czechs have made purchases on these platforms. The new duty will likely lead to a noticeable increase in the price of low-value consumer goods; at the same time, however, it should strengthen the competitiveness of European products.
Both measures — the fine imposed on Temu and the introduction of the customs charge — are not isolated developments, but part of a broader regulatory shift that the EU is implementing in the field of e‑commerce. Chinese platforms as well as other foreign sellers are facing increasing pressure in Europe from safety, consumer protection and customs authorities. The legal framework governing the operation of large platforms will largely be set by the DSA.
Do you have any related questions? Our team at HAVEL & PARTNERS is actively monitoring these developments and will keep you fully up to date. With extensive experience in e‑commerce, consumer law, competition law and tax matters, we are ready to provide full legal services across all of these areas.
