With its cheap and extensive range of consumer goods, including fast fashion, Temu seems like the ultimate overnight success. But is it all too good to be true? Spoiler alert: probably, yes.
At first glance, Temu looks like a wonderland of affordable accessories, jewelry, electronics, clothing, beauty products, home goods, and much more. At the time of writing, you can pick up a floral summer dress for less than $10 and a pair of comfy-looking soft slides for less than that. But is this Aladdin’s Cave of bargain items all too good to be true?
The Chinese-owned e-commerce platform has been called out for a lack of transparency around its business practices, indicating that maybe, behind all of those great-sounding deals, somebody, somewhere, is paying the real price of its cheap, fast, and convenient consumer goods. Despite the fact it’s now the most downloaded shopping app in the U.S., Temu hasn’t been around that long at all, launching only in 2022. But in a flash, Temu has grown into a real competitor for longer-standing giants in the space, like Amazon and Wish. While it does sell fast fashion, it seems to pride itself on being a one-stop shop marketplace for nearly everything. You can buy batteries, skincare, paint brushes, solar garden lights, ear protectors — if you can name it, Temu’s got it.
According to the company, the idea is that it “connects consumers with millions of sellers, manufacturers, and brands around the world with the mission to empower them to live their best lives.” It also claims to value empowerment, social responsibility, inclusion and diversity, and integrity.
But those low prices come with real problems for Temu and its chief rival, the other China-owned e-commerce behemoth, Shein. The U.K.’s Business and Trade Committee, chaired by former Labour minister Liam Byrne, recently announced plans to question Shein and Temu as part of an inquiry into employment rights launched in October. Both e-tailers have faced criticism over labor practices in Chinese factories. Shein, which rapidly expanded in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K., has stated its commitment to respecting human rights and prohibiting forced labor; Temu has denied the allegations.
Saturday Night Live recently took a jab at the platforms. The skit, which appeared in the Season 49 finale featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, touched on issues like forced labor, poor quality, and even toxins found on products.
Is Temu ethical?
According to a U.S. congressional report from June 2023, there is an “extremely high risk” that some of the products sold on Temu are linked to forced labor. The report — compiled by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party — also looked at fast-fashion giant Shein, and has open investigations into Nike and Adidas.
The committee expressed particular concern about Shein and Temu’s marketplace business model and the “exploitation of U.S. de minimus provisions.” The de minimis threshold is $800, and anything below this is not inspected upon entry into the country. Temu also doesn’t have any specific policy against goods being made in Xinjiang, where, according to the U.S. government, there is evidence to suggest that forced labor is taking place.
“These results are shocking: Temu is doing next to nothing to keep its supply chains free from slave labor,” said Congressman Mike Gallagher. “At the same time, Temu and Shein are building empires around the de minimis loophole in our import rules—dodging import taxes and evading scrutiny on the millions of goods they sell to Americans.”
This is far from the first time that companies associated with fast fashion have been linked to exploitative practices. In 2021, one report suggested that employees at factories supplying to Shein were only allowed one day off per month, and were clocking in for around three shifts per day. Since then, multiple reports have suggested there is ongoing exploitation in the brand’s supply chains.
According to the BBC, Chloe Cranston from Anti-Slavery called on Temu to provide “full transparency on its supply chain.” Likewise, the Chief Executive of Unseen, Andrew Wallis OBE, said “It is imperative consumers, but also governments, know the circumstances and the situations in which goods are manufactured and brought to market.
“The question consumers need to ask themselves is, these are goods that are in essence made by slaves? Is that the kind of gift you want to give at Christmas?”
In a statement shared with The BBC, a Temu spokesperson denied the use of slave labor. “Employment by all our merchants and suppliers must be voluntary. We explicitly reserve the right to terminate any business relationship if a third party violates our platform’s Code of Conduct or the law,” the spokesperson added.
Last month, the European Commission said Temu violated EU rules by failing to adequately block illegal goods on its platform, including baby toys and small electronics. A mystery shopping test revealed high consumer risk, with Temu relying on generic industry data rather than platform-specific risk assessments. If confirmed, the breaches would violate the Digital Services Act and could result in fines of up to six percent of Temu’s global revenue, alongside mandated corrective actions. The probe also examines possible violations tied to addictive design features, recommendation transparency, and researcher data access.
Temu and Shein are part of a much bigger problem. In the U.S., Europe, and the U.K., companies like Boohoo, H&M, Zara, Amazon, and Forever21 and many more, have been called out for business models that exploit people and the planet.
In a study of 1,000 clothing factories released in 2024, researchers found that more than half had dealt with issues like delayed payment from brands, as well as order cancellations and pay refusals. Approximately 37 percent of the brands studied (including GAP, Zara, and Lidl) were reported as having engaged in unfair practices.
Plus, all of this fast production and delivery has a major impact on the planet. In 2021, one study suggested that fast shipping alone increases CO2 emissions by 15 percent. Fast fashion is also associated with driving up textile waste (around 92 million tons of clothing ends up in landfill every year), as well as issues like water wastage, deforestation (which is usually linked to leather usage), and pollution.
Temu’s impact is far-reaching. As of last December, the app was available in 86 countries, while Amazon, “having been in business for three decades, operates in only 22,” reports Wired. For Temu, like another Chinese giant — TikTok — the U.S. market has been huge, but it’s far from primary.
According to Moira Weigel, an assistant professor at Harvard University who studies transnational online marketplaces, Temu has seen rapid expansion by prioritizing nascent markets. “In recent history, like the past 10 to 15 years, the first place people were interested in selling is the US and Europe, because they’re large markets, prices can be higher, and so on,” Weigel told Wired. “Now, there is increasing interest among these small-to-medium-size Chinese businesses in expanding in Africa, Southeast Asia, and also Central Asia.”
Related on Ethos:
