Arizona's top legal official, Kris Mayes, declared on Tuesday that Arizona has become the most recent state to file a lawsuit against Temu and its parent entity, PDD Holdings Inc., citing accusations that the online merchant originating from China is pilfering consumer information.
TL;DR
- Arizona sues Temu and PDD Holdings Inc. for allegedly stealing consumer data and misleading shoppers.
- The lawsuit claims Temu collects alarming private information like GPS coordinates and installed apps without permission.
- Concerns exist about Temu's compliance with Chinese laws and its circumvention of security assessments.
- Arizona also alleges Temu copied intellectual property from brands like the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University.
Mayes stated that the application misleads shoppers regarding the caliber of its inexpensive goods and gathers what she characterized as an alarming quantity of private information without user permission, encompassing GPS coordinates and a registry of other applications installed on users' devices.
The lawsuit indicates that prosecutors harbor reservations regarding Temu's subjection to Chinese legislation mandating that domestic firms furnish data upon government request, and that its programming is structured to circumvent security assessments.
“It can detect everywhere you go, to a doctor’s office, to a public library, to a political event, to your friends’ houses,” Mayes said during a news conference. “So the scope of this invasion of privacy is enormous, and that’s why I consider it possibly the gravest violation of the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act that we have ever seen in Arizona.”
Arizona’s top prosecutor also said the state wants to protect businesses from being “ripped off” by the online retailer, alleging the company has copied the intellectual property of brands that include the Arizona Cardinals and Arizona State University.
In a statement early Wednesday, Temu denied the allegations.
“We help consumers and families access quality products at affordable prices,” the company said. “We work to keep costs down and maintain reliable supply so people can meet their needs without stretching their budgets.”
Attorneys general in Kentucky, Nebraska and Arkansas have filed similar lawsuits in recent years.
There have been legislative efforts at the federal level to counter China’s influence, especially when it comes to technology and intellectual property. But Mayes suggested there should be greater intervention by the federal government to protect consumers.
Mayes called the allegations against Temu more egregious than those that have been made against TikTok.
Investigators in Arizona, through a detailed examination, discovered that the application's programming contains elements identified by specialists as malicious software or surveillance tools, enabling the extraction of information from a user's portable device without their knowledge. This examination further revealed within the app “large swaths” code that had been previously prohibited from the software's earlier iteration.
Mayes advised residents of Arizona to remove their Temu profiles, uninstall the application, and check their devices for malicious software.
