German cartel office probes Temu over merchant price influencing

BERLIN: Germany’s cartel office has initiated proceedings into Temu to examine whether the Chinese company is influencing the pricing of third-party merchants on its e-commerce platform, it said on Wednesday.

“We are investigating the suspicion that Temu could impose inadmissible requirements on merchants’ pricing on the German marketplace,” said Bundeskartellam (Federal Cartel Office) President Andreas Mundt.

“Such requirements could constitute significant restrictions of competition and ultimately lead to price increases on other sales channels,” he added.

The proceedings have been opened against Dublin-based Whaleco Technology Limited, which operates as Temu in Germany.

On the other hand, Temu said it adhered to applicable laws and regulations in the markets where it operates. “We are confident that any related concerns can be successfully resolved,” it said in an emailed statement.

Temu’s platform, offering a wide variety of products, has been open to German merchants for about a year, said Mundt.

Currently, Temu has 19.3 million active users in Germany, while more than 100 million users use its European online marketplace every month, according to the office.

RECESSION FEARS

German industrial production fell more sharply than expected in August, data showed Wednesday, reviving fears of a recession in Europe’s largest economy as it reels from US tariffs.

Data from the statistical office Destatis showed that from July to August, industrial production fell by 4.3 percent, much further than the one percent decline anticipated by analysts surveyed by Factset.

Following a contraction in GDP of 0.3 percent in the second quarter, the latest figures show “that the risk of yet another quarter of contraction and thus an outright technical recession is very real”, said economist Carsten Brzeski of ING bank.

Later on Wednesday, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche will present the government’s growth forecasts for the current year and 2026.