The European Union has carried out a surprise inspection at Temu's European offices in Dublin, as part of an investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) to verify if the e-commerce platform has received state support from China that would give it an unfair competitive advantage over European companies, as reported by Reuters.
The operation, executed last week at the group's headquarters in the Irish capital, occurs in a context of growing tensions between Brussels and Asian e-commerce giants that operate with extremely low prices and millions of users on the continent. The European Commission seeks to level the playing field for European retailers, as the massive influx of low-value Chinese packages (under €150) is putting pressure on local companies and employment.
Although the EC did not officially name Temu in its statement, agencies such as Reuters have confirmed that it was its European headquarters that was inspected in Dublin as part of the FSR, a regulation that allows fines of up to 10% of global turnover to be imposed if a company is found to benefit from foreign subsidies that distort the market. This search is in addition to another regulatory front that Temu was already facing: since 2024 it has been under investigation for possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA) for failing to implement effective controls to prevent the sale of illegal products or products that do not comply with EU standards.
The action against Temu reflects a broader EU strategy to curb the wave of low-cost Chinese imports, which according to European retail associations threatens to "break the rules of the game" and undermine the single market's safety, environmental, and labor standards. So far, Temu has not issued a public response to the search of its Dublin offices or to questions about the scope of these investigations, but pressure from Brussels, along with calls from trade and consumer associations, indicates that the platform is entering a critical phase of regulatory scrutiny in Europe.