The Chinese online marketplace Temu, on which you can buy almost anything at a suspiciously cheap price, seems to be a clear threat not only to the consumer, who is most likely to be presented with products without the requirements and certificates that are otherwise common in our country and mandatory for sellers, but also to the entire Czech e-commerce, i.e. the entire Czech market.
Temu entered us aggressively, as well as the whole world. His app has more than a hundred million downloads on Google Play, which speaks for itself. Thanks to huge investments, Temu bought almost all online advertising space and occupied an incredible amount of space in search engines and social networks. At the same time, they attack customers with unbelievably cheap offers and apparently dumping prices. The health risks of products without appropriate certificates are enormous. And many of the risks are of such a nature that they will manifest themselves only after a long time.
The products offered by Temu often do not even have the composition specified by law, and in this case, unfortunately, it probably doesn’t even make sense to inform ČOI, as it is a Chinese marketplace where law enforcement is simply difficult.
Another risk or problem is the absence of Czech instructions, which can also lead to dangerous commissioning or use. Sentences with warnings, which can sometimes seem laughable or unnecessary to us in the instructions, could be critically missing here. As far as I know, no major disaster has been publicized yet. Fortunately. But let’s just imagine what could happen if, due to the absence of an age group marking on the toy, a two-year-old child had a toy in his hand that he shouldn’t have and inhaled some small part.
Temu invaded the Czech and European markets, but we feel that they do not actually have to comply with the strict conditions that local stores and e-shops have for online business. As a result, unequal conditions are created for traders. Maybe someone just wanted to try a new option of online shopping and was curious if the ridiculously cheap item would arrive at all, if he didn’t even risk the cost of shipping from a regular Czech e-shop. But aggressive advertising, bombardment with e-mails and notifications did their work, and suddenly Temu is the second most visited site in the Czech Republic. Not only do similar marketplaces offer goods at ridiculously low dumping prices in corresponding (poor) quality, but Temu, for example, is currently accused of selling copies and fakes.
With the low price of the offered products, the question naturally arises as to where they come from and whether they were created by forced labor, something that was also pointed out by the US Congress last year. We cannot yet refute or confirm these conjectures. Another thing to think about is the issue of returning goods – is everything really fulfilled according to applicable standards and does the customer have the right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days? The same question mark also hangs over the topic of consumer personal data protection, as there is a real risk that Temu collects source data about users with its application (based on an analysis of its code and the functioning of the Android system, the American research company Grizzly Research said that Temu is the most dangerous application available to the general public.)
The drastic occupation of advertising space then resulted in an increase in online advertising prices by tens of percent year-on-year, which made the position of not only small players much more difficult. Many smaller e-shops, whose sales were based on internet advertising, then already cried over their earnings. But back to my main point and reasoning.
Why do Czech manufacturers and e-shop owners have to comply with Czech and European rules and laws, but on the other hand it looks like they don’t have to? Or do we have a surplus of funds in the state budget, and if someone apparently simply does not pay taxes and duties, then it doesn’t matter? Are we not afraid of the health risks that these uncertified products can bring, including children’s toys or sexual aids or underwear?
The entire Czech e-commerce has been building its image here for several years and in recent years has been educating customers that shopping on the Internet is now safe. But with this alibi of the relevant authorities, we throw this work in the trash and go back ten to fifteen years.
