South Korea Strengthens Product Safety Measures with AliExpress and Temu Agreement

South Korea’s government recently entered into an agreement with Alibaba’s AliExpress and PDD Holdings’ Temu to enhance product safety measures, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC). This agreement follows increased regulatory attention on Chinese e-commerce platforms like AliExpress and Temu as they expand their user base in South Korea.

The KFTC highlighted concerns over harmful substances found in products, especially those for children, sold on AliExpress and Temu platforms. This discovery underscored the necessity of such an agreement to ensure consumer safety.

Qin Sun, Temu’s co-founder, emphasized the importance of addressing consumer safety issues related to overseas online platforms. He mentioned plans to bolster monitoring efforts to prevent the distribution of harmful products, including recalling overseas products in Korea.

Ray Zhang, CEO of AliExpress Korea, noted the platform’s efforts to enhance consumer protection policies, such as establishing a customer hotline with multilingual support and streamlining return processes.

Under the agreement, the government will share data and verify whether harmful products have been removed from sale by these platforms. Additionally, the KFTC is pursuing legislation, like the Consumer Safety Act, to legally hold platforms accountable.

This agreement marks a significant step for Temu, being its first voluntary agreement of this kind globally, as noted by the KFTC. In contrast, AliExpress has a history of similar agreements with the European Union and Australia.

South Korea’s e-commerce market, ranked as the world’s fourth-largest by Euromonitor, continues to grow substantially, surpassing Japan’s market despite a smaller population. The number of AliExpress and Temu users in South Korea has soared, indicating a shift in consumer behavior towards international online shopping platforms.

Statistics Korea reported a notable 27% increase in South Korean e-commerce purchases from overseas in 2023, highlighting the market’s rapid expansion and evolving consumer preferences.