Danger! Europe's largest online purchasing platform attacks Temu

Since its launch in the European market in April 2023, Temu has expanded rapidly with policies such as "low prices" and "discounts", and its monthly active users have reached 75 million. However, as its influence continues to expand, Temu is facing more and more challenges and doubts.

Recently, foreign media reported that zentrada.Europe, one of the largest online purchasing platforms in Europe, is launching a petition across Europe. They claim that the proliferation of packages on platforms such as Temu has caused Europe to suffer heavy losses in terms of taxation and endangered local retail businesses.

According to data, zentrada.Europe is an online wholesale platform in Europe with more than 400,000 active retailers (including physical stores and online retailers). The reason for launching the petition is, on the one hand, to call on relevant institutions to stop subsidizing platforms such as Temu, and on the other hand, to hope that local retailers can have a fair competitive environment.

“We demand that European brick-and-mortar retailers and online traders be given an equal opportunity in the competition for users with platforms like Temu,” they stated in the petition .

Professionals point out that when European retailers import products, they must comply with EU regulations, conduct extensive inspections, and pay customs duties, taxes, and disposal fees as required.

However, due to insufficient customs supervision capabilities, Chinese platforms such as Temu circumvent these taxes, and they can also use freight subsidies when sending packages to Europe, which is extremely unfair to local retailers.

In addition, the German tax authorities stated that platforms such as Temu were suspected of tax fraud, causing huge losses to European taxpayers. In addition, a large number of products that have not been tested or do not meet EU standards have flooded the market, causing many users to question these platforms.

Relevant data shows that Temu and other platforms deliver nearly 9,000 tons of goods worldwide every day. Taking Germany as an example, about 400,000 pieces of goods are sent to the country every day. If the average value of each package is 10 euros, the total sales per day is as high as 4 million euros.

As a result, the German government loses approximately 760,000 euros in tax revenue (import sales tax or VAT) every day.

Platforms such as Temu not only pose a threat to local retailers, but also cause huge losses to the government, which has made Zentrada and other relevant European departments dissatisfied.

Based on this situation, Zentrada.Europe further pointed out that they hope to ensure that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance puts this issue at the top of the agenda through the petition and seizes the time to find a solution. For example, countries like Norway and Sweden can learn to impose parcel fees on goods imported from non-EU countries and take measures to reduce the flood of parcels.

For platforms like Temu, imposing tariffs means higher operating costs, but no matter what, the platform must always pay attention to compliance issues. After all, "if you touch someone else's cake, others will take action against you."