S. Korea, Alibaba platforms deal on product safety

South Korea’s government has signed an agreement with Alibaba’s AliExpress and PDD Holdings’ Temu, focusing on improved product safety for online shoppers, as reported by Reuters on Monday.

This move follows increased scrutiny from regulators concerned about a rise in harmful substances found in products sold on these platforms.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) cited recent safety inspections that identified a “large amount of substances harmful to the human body” in products sold by AliExpress and Temu, particularly those targeted at children. This prompted the need for a formal agreement to ensure consumer safety.

Qin Sun, co-founder of Temu, emphasised their commitment to “strengthening monitoring” and blocking harmful products like recalled items from reaching Korean consumers.

Similarly, Ray Zhang, CEO of AliExpress Korea, highlighted their efforts in consumer protection, including a multilingual customer hotline and faster returns implemented since March.

Under the agreement, the government will provide data on potentially harmful products and verify their removal from sale on the platforms.

Additionally, the KFTC is pursuing a separate Consumer Safety Act that will legally bind platforms to ensure safety standards.

This agreement marks a first for Temu, as they haven’t signed such agreements elsewhere globally.  Aliexpress, however, has a history of similar agreements with the European Union and Australia.

South Korea boasts a surprisingly large e-commerce market, ranking fourth globally behind China, the US, and the UK, according to Euromonitor data.