An Aliexpress ad in a Seoul subway station. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 13 (Korea Bizwire) – The South Korean antitrust regulator said Monday it signed agreements with the Chinese retail platforms AliExpress and Temu meant to strive to prevent their selling of harmful products and better protect consumers.
The move came as the customs agency found that some of the products sold on AliExpress, owned by Alibaba, and Temu contained high levels of carcinogens and other harmful substances, according to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).
Under the voluntary agreements, the two e-commerce companies will carry out safety checks of their products based on data and the results of monitoring conducted by the South Korean government and other entities, and halt the distribution and selling of hazardous items.
The Chinese retailers are also supposed to inform customers of such information, and the Seoul government will check if the platforms thoroughly implement due follow-up countermeasures.
“The agreements were the first of their kind signed between the South Korean government and foreign online platform operators on product safety,” the FTC said in a release. “The government will establish a close monitoring system.”
Temu has never clinched such a voluntary agreement with any other nation in the world.
The signing agreement took place in Seoul on Monday and was attended by FTC chief Han Ki-jeong, Ray Zhang, head of the Korean unit of AliExpress, and Temu head Qin Sun, according to the regulator.
The number of complaints by South Korean users about the products and services on the Chinese platforms has soared recently.
The number of AliExpress users in South Korea more than doubled to 8.87 million as of April from 3.36 million in 2022. The number of Temu users here also jumped to come to 8.29 million, government data showed.
(Yonhap)
