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U.S. consumer spending on Temu fell about 36% in May compared to a year earlier, while it fell 13% over the same period on Shein, according to trend data from Consumer Edge.

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Temu and Shein are pivoting to Europe as their business in the U.S. takes a major hit from unfavorable trade policies. But the China-founded budget e-commerce apps may not receive a warm reception in their new target markets. 

In recent weeks, complaints have been filed against Temu and Shein in the EU, accusing them of unsavory business tactics. That comes as the bloc prepares a new two-euro flat fee on previously customs-free small packages from online marketplaces like Temu and Shein. 

Experts say the new developments could be ominous signs for the platforms, as their business has already suffered from the May closure of a small package tariff exemption in the U.S., as well as new duties at 54%, or $100 for those sent through the postal service. 

“As regulatory and trade pressures intensify in the U.S., Temu and Shein are increasingly turning to Europe and the UK as critical growth markets,” Anand Kumar, associate director of research at Coresight Research, told CNBC. 

However, Kumar said that the companies have begun to face regulatory headwinds in Europe and the U.K. that echo the scrutiny they’ve encountered in the U.S. 

“The EU’s proposed €2 customs fee is more than a minor surcharge—it’s a strategic regulatory move aimed at curbing the unchecked growth of ultra-cheap cross-border e-commerce, and it could reshape how platforms like Shein and Temu operate in Europe over the next 2–3 years,” he added. 

Europe pivot 

Temu and Shein have boosted their ad spending in Europe, particularly in the U.K. and France, according to a report from Reuters, reflecting their shift away from the U.S.

The growing importance of the EU and U.K. to the two companies has also been reflected in data from Consumer Edge Research, which traces consumer trends based on a sample of credit and debit card info. 

According to the data it sent to CNBC, Temu’s consumer spending in the U.S. fell about 36% in May from a year earlier, while Shein’s fell 13% over the same period. The company added that its data shows that some of Temu and Shein’s U.S. customers have shifted their spending toward legacy department stores and fast fashion retailers. 

Those trends coincide with data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower showing that app usage of Temu and Shein in the U.S. is slowing significantly.

However, the opposite trends for the platforms were observed in the U.K. and EU. In May, year-over-year consumer spending growth reached 63% in the EU and 38% in the U.K. Shein experienced growth of 19% in the EU and 42% in the U.K. over the same period. 

For Temu, Consumer Edge data showed that growth was especially pronounced in the key market of France, Europe’s second-largest economy.  

To capitalize on the momentum in Europe, Temu and Shein have been aggressively expanding their operations across the region, including ramping up warehouse capacity, experimenting with localized business models, as well as significantly increasing digital ad spending in key markets like the U.K., France and Germany, according to Coresight’s Kumar. 

“This expansion is not merely opportunistic—it signals a strategic shift in how these companies envision their next phase of growth,” he said. 

“That said, the European market is not without its challenges. The region enforces stricter regulations on product safety, consumer protection, and fair competition, all of which require Temu and Shein to invest more in compliance and operational transparency,” he added. 

Experts say that those challenges and the EU’s potential duties on small-value packages may be signs of more pressures to come for Temu and Shein. 

Scrutiny intensifies 

According to French local media, the wording of an “anti-fast fashion” bill, which is under debate in the French National Assembly, was recently rewritten to single out ultra-cheap platforms like Shein and Temu. 

The bill, first approved by France’s lower house of parliament in March last year, seeks to penalize fast-fashion products for their environmental impact.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the pan-European consumer organization BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission against Shein over its use of deceptive techniques, or “dark patterns” that cause overconsumption. 

That comes after the European Commission announced its own investigation into Shein’s compliance with EU consumer law in February and, in May, urged Shein to respect EU consumer protection laws. 

BEUC has also filed a complaint against Temu, while 17 of its members filed the same complaint with their competent national authorities, the group said. 

Xiaomeng Lu, director of geotechnology at Eurasia Group, told CNBC that the latest scrutiny Temu and Shein are experiencing in the EU is reminiscent of that in the U.S. 

Shein reportedly planning to list in Hong Kong this year, not in London

“[Temu and Shein] offer cost effective solutions and an efficient supply network that fare well in the fast moving fashion world. However their labor practices and human rights standards may not fully align with high value markets like the EU and U.S.,” Lu said. 

That conflict and “rising protectionism” globally are the “key drivers of these regulatory reactions,” she added.

In the U.S., officials had also taken issue with Temu over its alleged non-compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which prohibits the import of goods made with forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region.

According to Coresight’s Kumar, Europe, for its part, is progressing toward stricter oversight through the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — which EU member states have until July 2026 to integrate into their national laws. 

The directive would compel companies operating in the EU to identify and mitigate human rights abuses in their supply chains, disclose environmental impact and sustainability metrics and face legal consequences for failing to take adequate preventive steps.

That means Temu and Shein will face stringent compliance demands in the EU, Kumar said. However, the region still offers meaningful opportunities for expansion in an increasingly protectionist global trade environment, he added. 

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Meta updates safety features for teens. More than 600,000 accounts linked to predatory behavior

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Meta updates safety features for teens. More than 600,000 accounts linked to predatory behavior

Facebook and Instagram icons are seen displayed on an iPhone.

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Meta on Wednesday introduced new safety features for teen users, including enhanced direct messaging protections to prevent “exploitative content.”

Teens will now see more information about who they’re chatting with, like when the Instagram account was created and other safety tips, to spot potential scammers. Teens will also be able to block and report accounts in a single action.

“In June alone, they blocked accounts 1 million times and reported another 1 million after seeing a Safety Notice,” the company said in a release.

This policy is part of a broader push by Meta to protect teens and children on its platforms, following mounting scrutiny from policymakers who accused the company of failing to shield young users from sexual exploitation.

Meta said it removed nearly 135,000 Instagram accounts earlier this year that were sexualizing children on the platform. The removed accounts were found to be leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-managed accounts featuring children.

The takedown also included 500,000 Instagram and Facebook accounts that were linked to the original profiles.

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Meta is now automatically placing teen and child-representing accounts into the strictest message and comment settings, which filter out offensive messages and limit contact from unknown accounts.

Users have to be at least 13 to use Instagram, but adults can run accounts representing children who are younger as long as the account bio is clear that the adult manages the account.

The platform was recently accused by several state attorneys general of implementing addictive features across its family of apps that have detrimental effects on children’s mental health.

Meta announced last week it removed about 10 million profiles for impersonating large content producers through the first half of 2025 as part of an effort by the company to combat “spammy content.”

Congress has renewed efforts to regulate social media platforms to focus on child safety. The Kids Online Safety Act was reintroduced to Congress in May after stalling in 2024.

The measure would require social media platforms to have a “duty of care” to prevent their products from harming children.

Snapchat was sued by New Mexico in September, alleging the app was creating an environment where “predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes.”

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UK pushes Apple and Google for mobile changes to curb market power

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UK pushes Apple and Google for mobile changes to curb market power

A series of iPhone 16s on display inside the Apple store at Tun Razak Exchange in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sept. 20, 2024.

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Britain’s competition regulators on Wednesday took aim at the mobile ecosystems of Apple and Google, pushing the two companies to make changes to areas like their app stores.

On Wednesday, the Competition and Markets Authority proposed designating the U.S. tech giants as having a “strategic market status” or SMS, after opening an investigation into the matter in January.

This designation is given to a large company that has “substantial and entrenched market power” and a “position of strategic significance” with respect to a digital activity in the U.K.

The CMA can force firms that are branded as having SMS to change or stop specific behaviors or practices in order to address competition concerns.

Apple and Google both took issue with the CMA’s proposals, effectively saying they would be bad for user security and consumers overall.

What has the CMA taken issue with?

Britain’s regulator focused on investigating Apple and Google’s mobile operating systems, app store and browser. One aspect of the investigation looked at whether there are barriers that may prevent other competitors from offering rival products and services on the U.S. tech giants’ mobile platforms.

Another part of the probe examined whether Apple and Google are using their position in operating systems, app distribution or browsers to favor its own apps and services.

And the final aspect of the investigation studied whether Apple and Google require developers to sign up to “unfair terms and conditions” in order to distribute their apps via the respective app stores.

The CMA on Wednesday said consumers and businesses have raised concerns about different issues across the two companies’ mobile ecosystems. But some of these include “inconsistent and unpredictable app review processes” and “inconsistent app store search rankings” that may favor the tech giants’ own apps.

The British regulator also took aim at the up to 30% commission charged by the firms on some in-app purchases and restrictions on developers telling customers about cheaper ways to pay or to subscribe outside of the app.

As part of Google and Apple’s review process to allow apps on to their app stores, developers raised concerns that the tech companies could have access to commercially sensitive data of their competitors, the CMA said.

Google’s Android operating system commands just over 61% market share in the U.K., while Apple’s iOS has just over a 38%, according to Kantar data. Google runs the Google Play store and Chrome browser, and Apple has its App Store and Safari browser.

What changes does the CMA want?

The CMA has laid out immediate changes that it wants to see, alongside some longer-term steps. The regulator said that it wants Apple to review apps for distribution in a “fair, objective and transparent manner.” This could include remedies such as Apple explaining delays or rejections and creating an avenue for businesses to raise concerns about the process.

Apple could also be made to publish a methodology for how it ranks apps in the App Store. The CMA has laid out similar remedies for Google.

The regulator is looking at how Apple and Google can make it easy for users to be steered by developers outside of an app to pay for services and products, thus avoiding their respective in-app purchase fee.

The CMA is also looking into ways to make it easier for users to transfer data between Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android to make switching easier.

For next year, the CMA said it is still looking at whether to require Apple to allow alternative app stores in iOS and the company’s iPad software. The regulator also said it is exploring whether to force Apple to allow users to download apps directly from a developer’s own website, a practice known as “sideloading.”

Apple and Google react

Apple said in a statement that the proposals from the U.K. “would undermine the privacy and security protections that our users have come to expect, hamper our ability to innovate, and force us to give away our technology for free to foreign competitors,”

“We will continue to engage with the regulator to make sure they fully understand these risks.”

Google’s Senior Director of Competition Oliver Bethell noted that both the Google Chrome browser and Android’s operating system are built on open-source code.

“These offerings enable great choice, security and innovation for users. That’s why today’s announcement is both disappointing and unwarranted,” Bethell said.

The Google executive highlighted ways in which Android has helped British developers and the economy.

“It is therefore crucial that any new regulation is evidence-based, proportionate and does not become a roadblock to growth in the U.K We remain committed to constructive engagement with the CMA for the duration of this process,” Bethell said.

U.S. tech giants face European scrutiny

Apple and Google’s regulatory problems on the continent of Europe continue to deepen.

In April, European Union regulators hit Apple with a 500 million euro ($587 million) fine for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — a landmark law aimed at tackling tech competition issues.

Apple has been forced to make a number of changes to the way it operates in the EU this year. These include allowing developers to tell their users about cheaper alternatives and bypass Apple’s in-app payment system.

However, some of the changes have yet to satisfy the EU regulators. Apple in June revealed a complex system of App Store fees in a bid to comply with the DMA and avoid the 500 million euro fine. Apple plans to appeal the fine.

Apple has long argued that forced regulator-led changes to its operations could lead to privacy and security issues for users and confusing business terms for developers

In March, Google parent Alphabet meanwhile was accused by the EU of failing to comply with the DMA. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Google is treating its own search services more favorably than those of rivals. The Commission added that Google’s app store is preventing developers from steering consumer to other channels for better offers.

The search giant is also looking to fight a 4.1 billion euro fine that has stemmed from an antitrust case dating back to 2018.

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Texas Instruments’ stock falls on weak forecast

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Texas Instruments' stock falls on weak forecast

The Texas Instruments headquarters in Dallas, Texas, on Jan. 21, 2024.

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Texas Instruments reported second-quarter results on Tuesday that beat analysts’ expectations for revenue and earnings. But the stock fell in extended trading due to a third-quarter forecast that missed estimates.

Here’s how the chipmaker did versus LSEG consensus estimates:

  • Earnings per share: $1.41 vs. $1.35 expected
  • Revenue: $4.45 billion vs. $4.36 billion expected

Texas Instruments said it expects current-quarter earnings between $1.36 and $1.60 per share, while analysts were looking for $1.50 per share. The company forecast revenue of $4.45 billion to $4.8 billion, for a midpoint of $4.625 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $4.59 billion.

Revenue increased 16% in the second quarter from $3.82 billion in the same period a year earlier. Sales in the company’s analog chip business, its largest, rose 18% to $3.5 billion, surpassing the StreetAccount estimate of $3.39 billion for the segment.

Net income rose 15% to $1.3 billion, or $1.41 per share, from $1.13 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year ago.

Texas Instruments is a key supplier of legacy semiconductors for automotive and industrial uses.

As of Tuesday’s close, Texas Instruments shares were up 15% for the year on broader market optimism for chips. In June, the company said it would spend $60 billion to expand chipmaking factories in Texas and Utah, a move that was praised by the Trump administration in its push to bring more technology manufacturing to the U.S.

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