The TikTok method: How the Chinese platform Temu entered the EU and Romania and how it is wreaking havoc on online commerce, without anyone being able to verify it

A giant has sneaked into Western e-commerce and is shaking up the competition: the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu.

From a small player, the Chinese company came to threaten Amazon’s platform and, in only 2 years, to reach more than 45 million users in EU states alone.

Temu is about to do to European e-commerce what TikTok did to American social media: it was too late to bring the giant under control.

The Financial Times puts the magnifying glass on Temu, Forbes already counts the damages in the market, the Federation of German Consumer Organizations fails to impose protection measures and the European Union, awakened by Letta’s Single Market Report, is only now taking issue with a passing player over the rules to grow in a month as others in a year.

Expensive and aggressive promotion, sailing past Western consumer protection rules, going on dumping prices under Chinese rules of doing global trade
and with supply lines that take the shortcut of global chains that confuse its competition, Temu thus threatens the single market and unfairly competes with European and Romanian players that respect trade and consumer protection rules.

The Financial Times writes about the mechanisms through which the Chinese giant stormed, through aggressive promotion and penetrating the rules of Western trade, the American and European market.

When we talk about the Romanian players in e-commerce, we are talking about a real regional hub, on the 3rd place in the CEE states, which annually produce over 3% of GDP.

Regarding Temu, let’s start from Romania

I fear in Romania

• Although it sells products in Romania, their quality, place of origin, and control over the order cannot be verified by a Romanian consumer.
• Despite the fact that the platform sells in Romania, the digital communication authorities believe that Temu cannot be verified as only doing e-commerce.
• Even the Competition Council should be notified by a company selling on the platform to start an investigation. As Temu sells products made in China, this seems impossible.
• Next, the Romanian client of the platform cannot defend himself in front of Temu at all, in case he considers that he has been wronged. I have contacted Temu platform representatives but have not received any response so far.
• The other competitors in the e-commerce market in Romania believe that the passivity of the authorities can lead to unfair competition and damage to the sector.

Chinese e-commerce platform Temu’s Facebook, Instagram promotional posts are as frequent as cat posts. The Temu website and application offers Romanians products of any kind, especially clothing or textile products, at very low prices. But there are also products or devices on the platform that can be considered medical.

The Temu platform is owned and operated by PDD Holdings, which also owns Pinduoduo, a joint online trading platform in China.

PDD Holdings was initially registered in the Cayman Islands before moving its place of incorporation to Dublin in 2023. The Temu platform first went live in the United States in September 2022.

In Romania, Temu entered in the fall of 2023. Now, the Facebook page has over 104,000 followers and the Instagram account has 5,000 followers.

“Dumping prices” in European trade

Ultra-low prices are Temu’s main selling point.

The purchase cost for any product on the platform is very cheap, “dumping” as their competition in our country would say. In Romania, the platform can be accessed on a desktop at Temu.com/ro, and the application can be downloaded on the phone from the Google and Apple virtual stores.

For a Romanian consumer, the problem is not the very low price, but the fact that he “is defenseless against the promotion of this platform in Romania”, tells us Sorin Mierleathe president of an organization specialized in Consumer Protection – InfoCons.

From the moment he accepts to open an account or order a product, the Romanian consumer is at the mercy of the representatives of the Temu platform.

Unfulfilled orders

Whoever enters Temu for the first time is attracted by the ultra-low prices: from 10 lei for a t-shirt to 100 lei for a webcam. Plus, shipping is free too. An order only needs to be at least 80 lei.

After the order is placed, the payment of the product normally follows. From this moment on, the Romanian consumer no longer has any control over the order and money recovery.

The Governance Course consulted the platform’s Facebook page, the last messages found were as follows:

“Hello, where can I get a phone number? I placed the order, I paid, but the order did not arrive. Who should I call, thank you very much for your understanding?”, is a message posted by Mirela Abrudean on the Romanian Facebook page of the Temu platform.

“Give me a phone number?”, Iuliana Maria Adam also writes.

There are also positive messages praising the platform. “I ordered a lot from Temu and had no particular problems! Thank you, Temu! You are more serious than many sites in the country! I, for one, am super satisfied with your products and services!”, writes the one whose profile is Daniela Jasmine.

But again, without looking for them, the negative or at least pessimistic posts come back.

“I also made 2 orders with more products, I hope they arrive!”, comments Gelu Magda.

“I also ordered several products, but I received only one of the 30 ordered… If one arrives at a time, they will arrive by summer!”, wrote Daniela-Stelian Iagaru.

“I would like to have the option: Payment on delivery”, Adriana Florenta Croitoru.

For any order in Romania, Temu estimates that the products will be delivered between 7 and 14 calendar days.

Even if this term is respected or not, the Romanian consumer is not protected in this situation.

The National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) does not even have a platform representative with whom it can communicate in case of complaints, as one of the institution’s regional commissioners told us.

A few hours later after the discussion, the Consumer Protection Authority announced that it was just undertaking a check on several e-commerce platforms, including Temu.

Read the full analysis The TikTok Method: How the Chinese platform Temu entered the EU and Romania and how it wreaks havoc on online commerce without anyone being able to check it on Governance Course