Yle finds products in Finnish shops that look just like cheap ones from Temu

An Yle investigation has revealed that several well-known Finnish retailers carry products that appear identical to items sold on Temu, Shein or Alibaba. Those three Chinese firms operate e-commerce platforms that connect consumers around the world to manufacturers — and their prices are usually very low. Those retailers have long been accused of selling sub-par products that could even pose safety risks in some cases. Yle's investigation found some Finnish retailers sell items that appear nearly identical to ones available on the Chinese platforms. For example, Yle purchased a Prego-branded meat tenderiser hammer from the Finnish discount retailer Tokmanni for €29.99. The Prego kitchen tool is also carried in a number of other Finnish stores, including Kärkkäinen. It characterised Prego as a firm with "over 70 years of experience in the Finnish domestic appliance and consumer electronics sector". At first glance, consumers might presume the sales copy was referring to a domestic product. But the tool is actually manufactured in China and sold by discount sites around the world — including Temu. It can also be bought wholesale from Alibaba for as little as three euros. Open image viewer Open image viewer Kärkkäinen's online retail manager Janne Kärkkäinen noted that "a significant proportion of the world's consumer goods are now manufactured in China or other Asian countries, regardless of which country's company owns or manages the brand in question". The Prego meat tenderiser's packaging states that the product is imported by a Finnish company, not manufactured by one. The origin isn't disclosed even on the side of the packet, nor is this required for all product groups. "Generally, the industry emphasises a product's features rather than their country of origin," said Berndt Krause , managing director of Inbound, the firm behind Prego-branded products. In practice, as a European firm Prego needs to examine and test products before selling them on the Finnish market. By purchasing products from a Finnish retailer, for example, consumers pay for their certified and presumed safety. Yle found products sold by many retailers in Finland that are marketed with the same images as identical-looking goods on Chinese e-commerce giants. The retailers included Biltema, Clas Ohlson, Halpahalli, Kärkkäinen, Motonet, Puuilo, Rusta, Säästökuoppa and Tokmanni. Made in… Sweden-based retailer Biltema's marketing copy states that it manufactures its store-branded items — in some cases they are actually made in China. According to the retailer, it does not disclose the origins of the goods on its website because the law does not require it. Under the EU's General Product Safety Regulation, a firm is considered the manufacturer if the products are marketed with their brand. The practice of white-labeling Chinese products and marketing them as if they were made in-house is legally permissible under current EU regulations — as long as the company takes legal responsibility for product safety and compliance, according to Juha Beurling-Pomoell , secretary general of the Consumers' Union of Finland. According to him, there's nothing legally problematic about this kind of marketing, even if it may seem misleading. Manufacturers and companies "In legislation, 'manufacturer' means an operator who has either manufactured, had manufactured or designed the product," he explained. He added that the operator bears legal responsibility for ensuring the product complies with EU regulations and is safe to use. Beurling-Pomoell noted that even if two products look the same, their safety may be in different categories. Often, a single factory manufactures a version of a particular product sold on the Chinese e-commerce giants' sites and another for European manufacturers. He said usually only versions sold to European operations are safe to handle and use, adding that an estimated 80–90 percent of products sold on the platforms may be dangerous and even illegal. According to Beurling-Pomoell, some items may even contain allergenic or carcinogenic substances, while some electronic devices can be so carelessly made that they can pose fire risks. However, the quality of either version of these kinds of products is not necessarily particularly good, he added. In any case, Beurling-Pomoell said that consumers concerned about product safety should shop in domestic department stores and European retail outlets rather than the Chinese online shops. Open image viewer Lanterns like this are available from Finnish retailer Puuilo, as well as Shein, for example. Image: Antti Haanpää / Yle Copy-cats Sweden-based home supplies retailer Clas Ohlson sells a padded cushion to use in car or office seats for extra lumbar support and improved posture. It charges €34.95 for the item, while at the same time a very similar cushion is available from Alibaba at the cost of 50 cents. The items are marketed with the same images, according to Yle's investigation. Clas Ohlson's communications specialist in Finland, Kaisa Sipponen , said goods sold under the company's brand names are designed in Sweden, but often manufactured in China. She said large international online marketplaces sell many products that resemble products developed by well-known brands. Some of these are unauthorised imitations or copies. Sometimes original product images are also used without permission, and the product being sold isn't actually the same as in the marketing images. Sipponen did not comment about the lumbar support cushions in question. Within the law Another example that Yle's investigation found was a Chinese-made muscle massage gun sold by electronics outlet Gigantti. But marketing for that device differs from the previously mentioned Prego-branded products. Gigantti's website openly states the product is brought to market by import company INF. Gigantti's description of INF is that it has 20 years of experience importing Chinese electronic goods. The China goods retail game can therefore be played in different ways — and still be entirely within the bounds permitted by law. How the investigation was done: Yle used AI to scan nearly 6,000 items sold by Finnish retailers. The technology was used to mechanically compare photos of products sold by Finland-based firms with ones sold from Temu and Shein. Then, the journalist manually checked the items considered to look exactly the same — both in Finland and on Chinese platforms. Experts told Yle that the products sold in Finland may be slightly different from their cheaper Chinese counterparts, despite having similar appearance and functionality. Chinese factories are known to sell items that look the same but are technically different for different markets.