State of Arkansas Continues Legal Battle Against Chinese-Owned Temu

China,

The State of Arkansas is continuing its legal battle against Chinese company Temu for allegedly deceiving Arkansans and illegally accessing their personal data.

Temu is marketed as an online shopping platform similar to Amazon or Walmart.com. In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multibillion-dollar marketing campaign — which included a Super Bowl ad in 2024 — has contributed to its success.

But as a Chinese-based tech company, security and privacy experts have raised concerns about Temu. The A.G.’s team first filed its lawsuit against Temu in state court last year. Since then, Temu’s attorneys have fought to have the case thrown out.

In August, the Arkansas Attorney General filed an amended complaint opposing Temu’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The filing argues Temu’s app secretly harvests Arkansans’ private information—including precise location, installed apps, online accounts, microphones, and cameras—and funnels it to servers subject to Chinese laws.

The A.G.’s team has also alleged that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.

The A.G. maintains that all of this is unconscionable under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which carries a penalty of $10,000 per violation.

Attorneys for Temu are expected to file a response to the A.G. in court by September 22.

It’s worth pointing out the A.G.’s allegations against Temu are very similar to points the A.G.’s office has made in its lawsuits against TikTok — another widely popular internet platform owned by a Chinese company.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin.

Bad actors like the Chinese Communist Party must not be allowed to secretly harvest Americans’ private data.

We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin taking this issue so seriously in court.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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A Year Later, Arkansas A.G.’s Court Battle Against Chinese-Owned Temu Continues

China,

It’s been more than a year since Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed a lawsuit against Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for allegedly violating Arkansas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act — and it does not look like the case will be resolved very soon.

Temu is an online shopping platform launched in 2022, and many people see it as similar to Amazon or Walmart.com.

In 2023, Temu was reported to be the most widely downloaded app in the U.S., and its multi-billion dollar marketing campaign — which included an advertisement during the 2024 Super Bowl — has contributed to its success.

But as a Chinese-based tech company, the Arkansas Attorney General’s office has pointed out that security and privacy experts are concerned about Temu.

The A.G.’s lawsuit alleges Temu collects excessive user data — including users’ GPS locations and fingerprint data — risking potential access by the Chinese Communist Party.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Temu app is able to bypass phone security systems, potentially granting Temu access to a user’s private messages.

In the lawsuit, the A.G. says these concerns are compounded by the fact that Temu is owned by a Chinese company subject to Chinese laws — including laws that “mandate secret cooperation with China’s intelligence apparatus regardless of any data protection guarantees existing in the United States.”

In other words, the app may let Chinese authorities secretly collect sensitive data on U.S. citizens.

The A.G.’s allegations against Temu mirror allegations the A.G.’s office has made against TikTok — a popular social media platform that is also owned by a Chinese company.

The A.G.’s lawsuit against Temu has continued in court for the past year, and the judge presiding over the case has issued a briefing schedule indicating that attorneys for Temu and the A.G.’s office will continue filing arguments until late September.

Family Council is not aware of any attorney general in America who is doing more to hold tech companies accountable than Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin. Bad actors like the Chinese Communist Party should not be able to secretly harvest American’s private data. We appreciate Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin taking this issue so seriously in court.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE