Arkansas is filing suit against a foreign-owned online retailer claiming the service is illegally trying to get customers’ private information.
Attorney General Tim Griffin filed the suit today against the parent companies of Chinese owned Temu, claiming the retailer is violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Arkansas Personal Information Protection Act. The lawsuit, filed in Cleburne County Circuit Court, targets Temus parent companies PDD Holdings Inc. and WhaleCo Inc.
In a statement, Griffin called Temu functionally malware and spyware, adding that the app was purposefully designed to gain unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system. “Temu is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart,” Griffin said in a news release. “It is a data-theft business that sells goods online as a means to an end.”
The Arkansas Attorney General added that the Temu is “functionally malware and spyware” designed to gain “unrestricted access to a user’s phone operating system” by overriding privacy settings. “Temu is led by a cadre of former Chinese Communist Party officials, which raises significant security risks to our country and our citizens,” Attorney General Griffin said in the release. “I will aggressively fight Temu’s efforts to profit at the expense of Arkansans’ privacy rights.”
The lawsuit seeks civil penalties and “other monetary and equitable relief.”
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