Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are joining forces against dangerous products from global online stores such as Temu and Shein.
The three countries’ environment ministers are pushing jointly to get the EU to take tougher action against retail giants. For example, they want to investigate whether it is possible to ban them from putting certain products up for sale.
“Global online platforms like Temu and Shein are flooding the market with products that are not safe for consumers and our children. We must do something about it,” says Norwegian Andreas Bjelland Eriksen on his way to an EU meeting in Brussels on Thursday, side by side with Swedish Romina Pourmokhtari (L) and Danish Magnus Heunicke.
“It’s very serious things that we notice that these platforms do not think they have a responsibility for. Then it’s up to the legislator to take a step forward and handle this problem before the products spread in our societies,” says Pourmokhtari.
The EU Commission warned in early February of tightened controls on packages from China due to criticism of Temu and Shein.
Sweden, Denmark, and Norway now want the EU Commission to also investigate what can be done about online retailers’ way of marketing their products.
Could you give an example of something you would buy from there rather than from somewhere else?
Like, why do you love it?
How is it different from, say, Temu?
Its surprisingly good for car parts and tools.
I always check AliExpress for anything thats relatively simple in construction but complicated to make, the kind of thing that chain stores will buy by the 100,000 at a time, put their own sticker on it and call it their store brand. The factory makes the 100,000 for the chain store, changes the paint color and cranks out 1000 for themselves to sell on AliExpress.
I live in New Zealand and there’s a general lack of supply for various things. This means high prices low choice. Things like spare electrical components, cables, specific bike tools and whatnot are quite cheap and they ship fast.
I never used Temu I must admit.
Not OP, but
Basically anything you’d buy off say Amazon from a 5 letter company.
Why it’s liked? It’s essentially the same stuff as 5 letter Amazon companies/some Etsy stuff/imported eBay stuff without the middleman, so I don’t pay drop shipper or Amazon taxes.
Ali Vs Temu:
I’ve not used Temu but from what I’ve read previously better selection on Ali, Choice items have better customer service.
Another big thing you might be missing: Amazon doesn’t exist in most places on earth. AliExpress does. And it has damn near everything when it comes to some categories. A lot of companies also sell directly on there, depending on your niche (coffee grinders, keyboard parts, 3D printing stuff, repair parts for whatever) straight from the source. For me a big one was metal models, the kind popularized by Metal Earth/Piececool.
The first time I received foreign packages of locally unavailable stuff from an online order in rural Lebanon was an almost magical experience. Even if it did spend two months rotting in customs.
Suddenly I went from having very few options for specific niche things, especially electronic parts, to being on the same playing field as everyone else on earth. I paid like 10 USD for an ATTINY85 from the local extortion shop, compared to like 20 USD for a pack of 10 from AliExpress. Quality? Please, the shop is buying them from there too. The ICs are fine.
I think AliExpress sells itself short, if you open the app it looks like they’re doing some sort of overwhelming and insufferable TEMU-style gamified slop-shopping “experience” on the front page. And sometimes you search for something and the one you want won’t show up, but will be in the sidebar of the page of one of the things you don’t want from that list. But it’s been a life changer for me after getting used to how it handles, I hear Amazon is much easier to use. Although you probably can’t ask the seller “hey can you paint this part differently” or “can you skip this accessory, I don’t need it” on Amazon.
so nothing
It’s the general you, but you’re free to do you.
Temu is predatory, offers fake discounts and only has poor-to-mediocre selection of goods and they arrive only a month after you ordered them (which I attribute to them getting the order, making it from scratch in a factory rather than storing anything, and directly sending it)