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> A major source of this latest wave of the so-called "China shock" narrative is the claim that the EU's trade deficit with China reached 360 billion euros in 2025.

These are the same people whose collective knickers are getting in a twist over Trump, mind you.

The theory is that this won't be the only fine if Temu doesn't fix this. So yes, a slap on the fingers, but the fines should grow bigger if Temu doesn't address this.

I don't understand how €200M can ever be considered a "penny slap".

€200M accounts for roughly 1.6% of their €12.3B net profit in 2025.

The average EU salary is €39,808. It's equivalent to a €636 fine. Though this is based on income, not net profit so it's actually more impactful to the average person than to Temu.

These sort of calculations are always missing a simple fact that no company on earth, not even Apple or Google shrugs off a 200M fine, no matter how little it is of their entire operating budget. It's the kind of money that gets people fired, even if it made no difference to the bottom line.

> It's the kind of money that gets people fired

1. It's not, and

2. Who cares if somebody gets fired for PR purposes? Especially with a severance that will make sure that their great-grandchildren will never have to work and your great-grandchildren will be paying them rent?

Everybody doing tens of billions of $ of business shrugs off a $200M fine. They might even get a bonus and a plaque for coming up with a scam that lasted so long before it blew up.

>>Everybody doing tens of billions of $ of business shrugs off a $200M fine

Again, that's not how it works, although I know people have this romanticized view of big companies casually shrugging off 200M fines like nothing.

>>They might even get a bonus and a plaque for coming up with a scam that lasted so long before it blew up.

Again, cool idea for a book, but doesn't happen in reality. No one gets a pat on the back and a bonus for being fined 200M.

Most people would find being fined a week's wages significant. It's not what they'd expect to get for, say, murder, but worse than any parking fine and enough that they'd give serious consideration to not doing whatever they did again.

Depends how much you made doing the activity you got fined for. Temu says the fine is disproportionate (of course) but I'd be surprised if they made actually less than 200M selling such goods over the years. Ideally it should be several multiples of what was truly made, otherwise it's just a bet you might not get caught or, in the worst case, a loan until you are fined.

Sure but this €200m fine is just the first fine. Its the first hit of the stick. It isn't meant to be crippling - it's just mean to be serious enough that they take action to avoid future fines, which might be a lot bigger.

Temu profit in 2025 from EU was $120M, you should count profit from EU, not global.

https://themorningnews.com/news/2025/10/13/temu-doubles-eu-p...

A real slap on the wrist of the CEO by a wronged customer would leave a more lasting impression.

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