Sorry, but there are so many things wrong with this comment that it's hard to know where to start. It was found that 85%-95% of the products from Temu, AliExpress, and Shein do not fulfill the requirements of European product safety laws. [1] Many of them are grave violations like use of lead, electronics that are fire/electrocution hazards, kid's toys with small parts or other safety issues (like again, lead).
IANAL, but EU laws puts the responsibility of damage on who manufactures, manufactures parts, and who imports the product [2]. This means if you are an EU company, even if you produce in China, you are responsible when kids get lead poisoning or a house burns down when your electronics didn't obey safety margins. Making safe products is more expensive, it requires proper design, not skimping on components, and testing the products in a lab. Temu/Ali/etc. sellers do not have to bear any responsibility, because they typically do not have any offices in the EU, so how are you even going to sue them? So, they don't have the same cost because they can skimp on all the safety requirements.
Second, designing products requires human labor. For instance, I am quite familiar (through contacts) with the ergonomic keyboard market. Designing an ergonomic keyboard can require years of iteration. Multiply by the salary of the keyboard designer and you can understand why you can not sell such a product just above cost price. However, on Ali, etc. you can buy ergonomic keyboards that are either license violations of open designs (that typically have a CC license that does not allow commercial use) or outright copies of non-open designs.
It's easy to provide something at cut-throat prices when you are stealing the bulk of the work.
And then we are not even talking about the absolute environmental waste of sending individual packages to customers in place of bulk shipping.
EU is absolutely right to regulate this. Temu etc. are making money by externalizing most of the cost (monetary, environmental, safety, etc.). Make Temu etc. open an EU office and require them to ship from that office. In that way they have to comply to European safety regulations and can be held accountable if some kid dies, or a house burns down from unsafe electronics.
Before anyone comes with the tired sinophobia argument: I am not criticizing China. There are many Chinese companies that do business in the EU and do not try to dodge local regulations.
IANAL, but EU laws puts the responsibility of damage on who manufactures, manufactures parts, and who imports the product [2]. This means if you are an EU company, even if you produce in China, you are responsible when kids get lead poisoning or a house burns down when your electronics didn't obey safety margins. Making safe products is more expensive, it requires proper design, not skimping on components, and testing the products in a lab. Temu/Ali/etc. sellers do not have to bear any responsibility, because they typically do not have any offices in the EU, so how are you even going to sue them? So, they don't have the same cost because they can skimp on all the safety requirements.
Second, designing products requires human labor. For instance, I am quite familiar (through contacts) with the ergonomic keyboard market. Designing an ergonomic keyboard can require years of iteration. Multiply by the salary of the keyboard designer and you can understand why you can not sell such a product just above cost price. However, on Ali, etc. you can buy ergonomic keyboards that are either license violations of open designs (that typically have a CC license that does not allow commercial use) or outright copies of non-open designs.
It's easy to provide something at cut-throat prices when you are stealing the bulk of the work.
And then we are not even talking about the absolute environmental waste of sending individual packages to customers in place of bulk shipping.
EU is absolutely right to regulate this. Temu etc. are making money by externalizing most of the cost (monetary, environmental, safety, etc.). Make Temu etc. open an EU office and require them to ship from that office. In that way they have to comply to European safety regulations and can be held accountable if some kid dies, or a house burns down from unsafe electronics.
Before anyone comes with the tired sinophobia argument: I am not criticizing China. There are many Chinese companies that do business in the EU and do not try to dodge local regulations.
[1] https://www.nvwa.nl/nieuws-en-media/nieuws/2025/01/16/nederl...
[2] https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/dealing-with-customers...