Especially harmful to children

The Icelandic government in collaboration with the other Nordic countries is now looking at how to cope with the import of products from market squares such as Shein and Temu. A high percentage of these products does not meet the requirements of European states that were set to protect the health of consumers and the environment.

Last year, 4.6 billion tonnes of products were imported from market squares outside the European Union to Europe. This is equivalent to about 12 million small shipments every day. The number of these shipments has more than tripled since 2022.

Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson, Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate, says he is particularly concerned about the products and clothing that contain health hazardous materials and are intended for children.

The minister discussed the issue at a Nordic ministerial meeting in Finland these days. He says the consensus of states that radical action needs to be taken. Much is at stake.

« Iceland is leading a project in the Nordic co -operation program for sustainable consumption and production. We have decided to put considerable focus on online stores. meet the requirements we have set. « 

Striking numbers

Jóhann Paul says the matter concerns both the safety of people and the environment. Fast fastest is extremely energy -intensive, it requires a lot of water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Then the products are bad for people’s health.

Health -damaging substances that have been found in the clothes can cause rash, cancer and affect the body’s hormonal function.

« This is especially harmful to children and the data is very striking about children’s products and toys, » says Jóhann Páll.

« We are so accustomed to being able to pretty much assume that what we buy is at least pretty much right, and that is precisely because of the results that European nations have achieved in consumer protection through European cooperation – by setting harmonized rules and requirements.

View the chain of responsibility thinking

At a meeting of the Council of Ministers, MA was discussing how the Nordic countries could jointly push the European Commission to take action and the possibility of establishing a common data portal on products.

« Then the chain of responsibility was being examined, perhaps increasingly imposing claims on payment intermediation companies and carriers, to have some kind of minimum control of what is being traded and transferred.

Mutation of the last years

Asked if this work is limited to products from Shein and Temu, Jóhann Páll does not say so, but that those companies are under the microscope in light of the high proportion of their products does not meet the requirements.

« This generally concerns this tremendously rapid development. There are many billions of products purchased through online stores every year in Europe and it has become the absolute mutation in the scale in the last two to three years. »