The agreement signed by Temu includes 14 resolutions, including identifying dangerous consumer products, cooperating with Health Canada, raising sellers’ awareness of product safety and empowering consumers on product safety issues.
The company will now have to report annually to Health Canada on the measures taken to meet the commitment.
“Temu’s mission is to provide consumers with safe and affordable options for the products they need,” said a company spokesperson.
Concerns in the United States
In the fall, U.S. regulators have called for an investigation into what they call “deadly products for babies and young children” from foreign e-commerce sites and Canadian health authorities say they don’t have enough information to determine whether any laws or regulations have been violated.
Under Health Canada’s Consumer Product Safety Program, manufacturers, importers, advertisers and sellers of consumer products must ensure that their products meet all health requirements and do not present a hazard for human health or safety, a Health Canada spokesperson said in a recent email to CTVNews.ca.
The U.S. commissioners raised specific concerns about popular shopping apps Shein and Temu, citing recent media reports that they say show “deadly products for babies and young children are easy to find on these platforms.”
TO SEE | Why buy from Shein and Temu in 2024? Retailers denounce “unfair competition”
Shein and Temu use third-party sellers in China to sell low-cost products, ranging from T-shirts to electronics.
In response to concerns from US regulators, Temu said they have put measures in place to ensure the safety of their products.
“We have a comprehensive approach to quality control on our platform that aligns with the requirements of the markets in which we operate,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to CTVNews.ca. “Responsibility and sanctions are clearly defined within Temu’s quality control framework. Temu maintains a blocklist to prevent problematic sellers from returning to the platform.
The Temu spokesperson maintains that they carry out random inspections of products before and after they are listed on the platform.
“If we discover products suspected of being illegal or harmful, we immediately take corrective action, such as suspending the sale of these products,” the spokesperson wrote.
“Unfair competition” from Temu?
Temu entered the Canadian market in February 2023. Recently, Quebec retailers accused the platform of of “unfair competition” and “invading the Canadian market”.
The Quebec Retail Council (CQCD) and 22 retailers and organizations filed a letter last week in Ottawa and Quebec, denouncing the situation and urging governments to apply the same laws to Chinese merchants.
“Quality, francization and environmental rules are imposed on us and we see that these businesses do not respect these rules,” protested Charles Pépin-Clément, owner of the Clément baby boutique. We see that we are not playing on the same field.”
With information from Marika Simard for Noovo Info and Christl Dabu for CTV News.
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