Though it’s a number of weeks since the Spring Fair furore, TEMU remain firmly on ACID’s agenda. Whilst their presence at Spring Fair was controversial and divisive, it also opened a door to communication with real human beings; not a common situation with the online marketplace world! ACID have been keenly pursuing a follow up meeting and, on 26^th February 2025, Dids, Marion and Laura joined an online meeting with representatives from TEMU to continue applying pressure on behalf of our members, and the wider design community, regarding the prolific, marketplace-wide copyright and design infringement.

Attending the meeting from TEMU were Tony Tong, UK Business Development Director, Fiona Yang, Director of Brand Partnerships and, with 15 minutes left in our meeting, we were also joined by Mike Lui, Head of IP Protection.

ACID presented a number of key areas for comment:

• Prolific copyright infringement, as demonstrated (for example) by the greetings card industry
• Seller vetting apparently not being fit for purpose, due to the number of infringements
• Though take down was usually quick and responsive, sellers were quickly relisting under a new name to continue infringing rights holders’ IP
• TEMU need to be more proactive in monitoring infringing sellers and listings, not leave this to rights holders’ who are often SMEs without resource to tackle mountainous infringement at this level
• TEMU need to improve their vetting process and ensure repeat offenders are not allowed back

Fiona Yang was keen to share TEMU’s IP Protection Programme, built on the pillars of policies and procedures, notice and takedown, proactive monitoring and stakeholder engagement. She raised the following points:

• Policies and agreements include a seller code of conduct and repeat infringer policy, and sellers are expected to submit documentation to prove products are genuine, as well as business certification and/or ID cards. Repeat infringers can have account restrictions or deletion, depending on TEMU’s assessment of the severity of their behaviour.
• Notice and takedown extends to the IP protection portal which has an average processing time of 24 hours and a Band registry portal, which is open to all to upload a trade mark.
• Proactive monitoring includes seller vetting and registration, and image-based algorithms.
• Stakeholder engagement extended to this meeting with ACID as an example, as well as test purchases and NDAs.

Though ACID complimented TEMU on the existence of their IP programme, this simply did not translate to seamless and effective take down on the ground. Moreover, the seemingly strong trade mark focus really wasn’t fit for purpose when the infringement is, more often than not, design and copyright.

It is clear that TEMU are trying to meet the needs of their legitimate traders, but have a long way to go. They were seemingly taken aback by the reception at Spring Fair, being largely unaware of their negative reputation; in fact, seeing themselves as a platform for luxury products and brands. During the meeting, TEMU were left in no doubt of the magnitude of cost and resource involved for SMEs to enforce their IP rights, and the action ACID is taking to keep this on the political agenda.

TEMU are still learning global IP rights and there are many differences. For example, unregistered design simply doesn’t exist in China and copyright has to be registered unlike here in the UK, where it is an automatic right. They currently have a brick wall when it comes to better actioning copyright evidence, despite ACID’s suggestion that, surely, once the ownership has been proven by the UK rights’ holder, they should take it as read that any other use of this work is infringing!

So, where next?

TEMU’s door is open and they want to work with us but it’s going to be a long road. They appear to want  to be compliant, and perhaps more than a little naïve as to the extent of the work required to achieve this.

Tell us what you think. We’ve been permitted to share the IP Protection Programme and want to hear your thoughts.

• Please send us your case studies on your experience with TEMU infringements.
• Tell us what you think of their IP Protection Programme. What works? What doesn’t? What needs improving?
• Write to your MP! Contact us for a template letter. Keep this on the political agenda!
• Would you be interested in ACID setting up a Q&A webinar with TEMU to voice your experiences?

Contact [email protected] or [email protected]. We want to hear from you!