{"id":705,"date":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/temu-dsa-fine-illegal-products\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:00:00","slug":"temu-dsa-fine-illegal-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/blog\/temu-dsa-fine-illegal-products\/","title":{"rendered":"Temu&#8217;s DSA action plan is due: what the \u20ac200m fine means for takedowns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, 28 August 2026, is the deadline for Temu to send the European Commission its action plan following the <strong>\u20ac200 million Temu DSA fine<\/strong> for failing to assess the risk of illegal products on its marketplace. The decision of 28 May is about risk assessment, not individual listings, but it spells out what the EU now expects from a large marketplace. Brand owners whose products are copied or counterfeited on these platforms can use it to press for takedown procedures that actually work.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Commission fined Temu \u20ac200 million under the Digital Services Act (DSA) for not diligently assessing the systemic risks of illegal products on its platform.<\/li>\n<li>Its 2024 risk assessment relied on generic e-commerce data, underestimated how often EU consumers meet illegal items and ignored recommender systems and affiliate influencers.<\/li>\n<li>The action plan due today must include an independent audit; the Board and the Commission then have one month each to assess it.<\/li>\n<li>The DSA lists counterfeits as illegal content, so the same logic covers IP infringements, but the fine compensates no brand owner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What does the Temu DSA fine for illegal products cover?<\/h2>\n<p>The DSA (Regulation (EU) 2022\/2065) requires very large online platforms, those with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU, to assess the systemic risks of their service every year and to mitigate them (Articles 34 and 35). Temu was designated on 31 May 2024. The Commission opened proceedings on <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_24_5622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">31 October 2024<\/a>, adopted preliminary findings in July 2025 and issued a non-compliance decision on <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/news\/commission-fines-temu-eu200-million-breaching-digital-services-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">28 May 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_1178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">press release IP\/26\/1178<\/a>, the risk assessment fell short in three ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It was built on general information about e-commerce rather than evidence about Temu&#8217;s own service.<\/li>\n<li>It seriously underestimated how often EU consumers meet illegal items. In a mystery shopping exercise for the Commission, a very high percentage of selected chargers failed basic safety tests and a high percentage of tested baby toys posed medium to high risks.<\/li>\n<li>It did not assess how recommender systems and product promotion by affiliated influencers could amplify the spread of illegal products.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is the second DSA fine, after the <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_25_2934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u20ac120 million fine on X of 5 December 2025<\/a>, and the first aimed at a marketplace.<\/p>\n<h2>What must the action plan due on 28 August contain?<\/h2>\n<p>Because the breach concerns the risk-management duties of very large platforms, Article 75 DSA applies an &#8220;enhanced supervision&#8221; procedure:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Step<\/th>\n<th>Who<\/th>\n<th>Time limit<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Action plan to remedy the breach, including an independent audit of its implementation (Art. 75(2))<\/td>\n<td>Temu<\/td>\n<td>28 August 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Opinion on the plan (Art. 75(3))<\/td>\n<td>European Board for Digital Services<\/td>\n<td>One month from receipt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Decision on whether the measures suffice and period to implement them (Art. 75(3))<\/td>\n<td>Commission<\/td>\n<td>One further month<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Periodic penalty payments if the plan is missing, rejected or not implemented (Arts. 75(4) and 76)<\/td>\n<td>Commission<\/td>\n<td>Up to 5% of average daily worldwide turnover per day<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The plan is not published on filing. Brand owners will later see the platform&#8217;s public risk assessment and audit reports, which very large platforms must publish under Article 42(4).<\/p>\n<h2>Why the decision matters for counterfeits and IP takedowns<\/h2>\n<p>Recital 12 of the DSA lists &#8220;the sale of non-compliant or counterfeit products&#8221; among examples of illegal content. The Temu case was argued on product safety, but the reasoning carries over to IP: a platform has to measure what actually appears on its own service and ask whether its recommendations and affiliate programmes push those listings to more buyers.<\/p>\n<p>For individual infringements, the operative tools remain the obligations every marketplace owes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Notice and action (Article 16): a notice with reasons and the exact URL can give the platform actual knowledge, and it must decide diligently and objectively.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat infringers (Article 23): users who frequently provide manifestly illegal content must be suspended after a warning.<\/li>\n<li>Trader traceability (Article 30): marketplaces must collect and check traders&#8217; identity and payment details before they sell to EU consumers.<\/li>\n<li>Complaints (Article 20): a rejected notice can be contested free of charge for at least six months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Coordinating these notices with civil and customs remedies is what our <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/services\/legal-ip\/\">IP enforcement and online infringement team<\/a> does for rights holders in several markets.<\/p>\n<h2>What this means for your business<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Check your rights base. Notices are far stronger with an EU trade mark or national registrations where buyers are located; many Latin American and African brands selling into Europe lack them.<\/li>\n<li>Build evidence as the Commission did: test purchases, dated screenshots and a record of listings that reappear after removal.<\/li>\n<li>Track promotion, not just listings. If affiliates or recommendations push infringing products, say so in your notices.<\/li>\n<li>Log response times and rejections. They support internal complaints, a complaint to a Digital Services Coordinator under Article 53 or court action.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If your marks are not registered where the problem is, our <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/services\/trademarks\/\">trademark registration team for the EU, Latin America and Africa<\/a> can close that gap first.<\/p>\n<h2>Where brand owners get marketplace enforcement wrong<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Expecting the fine to do the work.<\/strong> A DSA decision fixes the platform&#8217;s systems; it does not remove your listings or pay your losses.<\/li>\n<li>Sending vague notices. Without the exact URL and reasons, a notice may not give actual knowledge.<\/li>\n<li>Filing manifestly unfounded notices. Under Article 23, platforms can stop processing notices from frequent offenders.<\/li>\n<li>Treating each platform and country separately while the same sellers move between marketplaces.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Why was Temu fined under the Digital Services Act?<\/h3>\n<p>The Commission found on 28 May 2026 that Temu had not diligently identified, analysed and assessed the systemic risks of illegal products on its marketplace. Its 2024 risk assessment relied on general sector data, underestimated how often EU consumers meet illegal items and ignored how recommender systems and affiliate influencers could amplify them.<\/p>\n<h3>Does the Temu decision help brand owners remove counterfeit listings?<\/h3>\n<p>Indirectly. The decision concerns Temu&#8217;s risk assessment, not specific listings, and it does not compensate brand owners. But the DSA treats counterfeit products as illegal content, so the decision sets a benchmark for how seriously marketplaces must take illegal listings. Individual removals still depend on well-documented notices under Article 16.<\/p>\n<h3>Can IP Global Guard handle marketplace takedowns for my brand?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. We check that your rights cover the markets concerned, prepare substantiated notices and complaints, track repeat sellers and, where removal is not enough, coordinate customs applications and court action with qualified local counsel across Europe, Latin America and Africa, all through a single point of contact.<\/p>\n<h2>How IP Global Guard can help with marketplace infringements<\/h2>\n<p>The Temu decision raises the bar for platforms, but listings still come down one notice at a time and repeat sellers need a strategy. IP Global Guard, the IP services line of META Channel Corporation Limited, brings rights, evidence, notices and follow-up action together across more than 25 jurisdictions in <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/coverage\/\">Europe, Latin America and Africa<\/a>, with one strategy and one billing relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Send us the platforms, the countries and a few examples of the listings that concern you. We will check your rights, tell you which route is likely to work fastest and coordinate the rest. <a href=\"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/contact\/\">Contact our enforcement team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is general information, not legal advice, and reflects the position on its publication date.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Sources<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_1178\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, press release IP\/26\/1178 on the Temu fine (28 May 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu\/en\/news\/commission-fines-temu-eu200-million-breaching-digital-services-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, Shaping Europe&#8217;s digital future, Temu fine (28 May 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessday.co.za\/world\/international-companies\/2026-05-28-temu-fined-200m-for-breaching-eu-rules-on-sale-of-illegal-products\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BusinessDay (Reuters), Temu fined \u20ac200m (28 May 2026)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_24_5622\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, proceedings against Temu, IP\/24\/5622 (31 October 2024)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_25_2934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Commission, fine on X, IP\/25\/2934 (5 December 2025)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/eli\/reg\/2022\/2065\/oj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2022\/2065, Digital Services Act (19 October 2022)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Temu&#8217;s DSA action plan is due on 28 August 2026. What the \u20ac200m fine for illegal products requires and how brand owners can use it to demand better takedowns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[90,88,92],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-ip","tag-counterfeiting","tag-customs","tag-dsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipglobalguard.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}