BRUSSELS: Chinese online retailer Temu will be investigated whether it broke EU tech rules against selling illegal products, EU tech regulators said on Tuesday, a move which could result in hefty fines for the company.

The EU investigation will also focus on the potentially addictive design of Temu’s service, including its game-like rewards programs and purchase recommendation systems to users.

The European Commission has launched its investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires very large online platforms such as Temu to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms, following complaints filed by the pan-European consumer organization BEUC and 17 of its members. national members.

Temu, which has 92 million users across the 27 European Union countries, is a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings.

The EU technology authority will also examine whether Temu complies with the DSA’s obligation to provide researchers with access to its publicly available data.

“We want to ensure that Temu complies with the Digital Services Act. In particular, by ensuring that products sold on their platform meet EU standards and do not harm consumers,” said Margrethe Vestager, head of antitrust and technology of the EU, in a press release.

Temu could be fined up to 6 percent of its global turnover if found guilty of violating the DSA.