In a report on e-commerce on Wednesday, warnings were issued about further investigations into how, for example, popular Chinese platforms like Shein and Temu comply with various EU regulations.
Many products have been shown to be unsafe, counterfeit or even dangerous, says EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen at a press conference in Brussels.
The member states and the EU Parliament are now urged to speed up work on the customs reform proposed as early as 2023. The EU Commission wants to abolish customs exemptions for goods worth less than 150 euros and instead introduce a handling fee to better control and manage the influx.
According to the EU Commission, an average of 12 million small packages arrive daily in the EU – and 95 percent of them come from China.
"The problems of overproduction, use of toxic chemicals and poor working conditions are not unique to Shein and Temu, but unfortunately permeate the entire fast-fashion sector. Today's proposal is a step in the right direction, but most of the work remains," writes EU Parliament member Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) in a comment.
