The Seoul metropolis authorities has requested on-line retail giants Temu and AliExpress to droop gross sales of sure youngsters’s merchandise over security considerations, saying Friday that some items far exceeded native limits for hazardous substances.
Chinese language e-commerce titans like Shein, Temu and AliExpress have seen a surge in world reputation in recent times, drawing in shoppers with a variety of classy, ultra-low-cost trend and equipment—positioning them as main rivals to U.S. large Amazon.
Their fast rise has triggered rising scrutiny over enterprise practices and product security, together with in South Korea.
The Seoul metropolis authorities stated Friday it lately inspected 35 youngsters’s merchandise offered on Temu and AliExpress—together with umbrellas, raincoats and rain boots—and located that 11 failed to fulfill South Korea’s security requirements or contained hazardous substances above native limits.
In six of the umbrellas, phthalate-based plasticizers—chemical substances used to make plastics extra versatile—have been discovered at ranges far exceeding security requirements, town stated in an announcement.
A few of these merchandise exceeded the home security restrict by as much as 443.5 occasions for the chemical, whereas two gadgets have been discovered to include lead at ranges as much as 27.7 occasions larger than the regionally acceptable degree.
Based mostly on the inspection outcomes, the Seoul authorities stated it “has requested that on-line platforms droop gross sales of the non-compliant merchandise”.
It additionally famous that “extended publicity to dangerous substances can have an effect on youngsters’s development and well being”, and highlighted the necessity to rigorously evaluate product info earlier than making purchases.
Temu and AliExpress didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from AFP.
The Seoul authorities informed AFP the retailers haven’t any authorized obligations to adjust to their request.
Phthalate-based plasticizers could cause endocrine issues, whereas lead publicity above security limits can impair reproductive capabilities and improve the danger of most cancers, Seoul authorities stated.
Final yr, town authorities stated ladies’s equipment offered by Shein, AliExpress and Temu contained poisonous substances generally a whole bunch of occasions above acceptable ranges.
The European Union final yr added Shein to its checklist of digital corporations which might be sufficiently big to return beneath stricter security guidelines—together with measures to guard prospects from unsafe merchandise, particularly those who could possibly be dangerous to minors.
