US safety commissioners call for investigation into Shein, Temu By Reuters

By Arriana McLymore

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two leaders of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are asking the agency to investigate e-commerce retailers Shein and Temu after “deadly products for babies and toddlers” were sold on both sites, according to in a letter published on the US CPSC website on Tuesday.

US CPSC Commissioners Peter Feldman and Douglas Dziak want the agency to evaluate how Singapore’s Shein, China’s Temu and other foreign-owned e-commerce platforms follow its rules, manage relationships with third-party sellers and represent imported products.

PDD Group’s Shein and Temu, which both ship low-cost goods to the US from China, express “specific concerns” to the commission over the use of de minimis, a rule that exempts packages valued at $800 or less from tariffs if sent directly to buyers.

Critics of Shein and Temu attribute low and de minimis prices to Shein and Temu’s success in the US. Both companies were also scrutinized for the quality of their products.

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers last year planned to introduce a bill to eliminate the de minimis, which is widely used by e-commerce platforms, including third-party sellers on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: ) and Walmart (NYSE: .com.