Temu has taken the U.S. market by storm since it launched in 2022, with its parent company PDD Holdings reporting revenue of $13.36 billion for the second quarter of this year – an increase of 86 percent compared to the same three-month period last year. Founded in 2015 by Colin Huang (who previously launched Pinduoduo, a popular online marketplace in China) and making a splash stateside by connecting consumers with “millions of merchandise partners, manufacturers and brands,” the majority of which are based in China, Temu’s appeal lies in its offering of “the cheapest option for anything you might need,” as Wired put it recently. And “it works.”
Amid rising scrutiny of Temu and its closest rival, Shein, stemming from enduring allegations of intellectual property infringement, evasion of U.S. trade laws, mishandling of consumers’ data, and offering up potentially dangerous and/or illegal products, we took a dive into the state of Temu’s legal dealings.
In particular, we looked at the lawsuits waged by – and against – Temu and its subsidiaries/related entities, namely, Boston, Massachusetts-headquartered Whaleco, Inc., which operates the Temu e-commerce site, and owner PDD Holdings, among others (collectively, “Temu”) in federal courts in the United States in order to get a handle on what the legal landscape looks like for the company that has nabbed the title of one of the fastest-growing e-commerce companies in the world.
After reviewing Temu-specific court documents filed between December 16, 2022 (when the first lawsuit was filed against the company in the U.S.) and October 20, 2024, we found the following …
> Temu has filed – and been on the receiving end of – new lawsuits since the end of 2022 when the first wave of litigation was initiated against the company in federal courts in the U.S.
By our count, Temu is currently facing upwards of 20 ongoing cases.
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