The Ministry of Development and Technology sent a letter to Whaleco Technology Limited and Infinite Styles Services Co. Ltd. These are Irish companies that represent the Temu and Shein platforms in Europe. Chinese platforms are expanding on Western markets, including the Polish market, but their activities raise a number of legal and tax doubts.
MRiT: Falsely obtaining the status of an enterprise
The portal has accessed the correspondence of the Ministry of Development and Technology with Irish companies that represent Chinese sales platforms money.pl. Polish the ministry did not receive a response from Temu's representative and therefore contacted the Irish Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Regulation, Dara Calleary. “Unfortunately, to this day Whaleco Technology [irlandzki przedstawiciel Temu – przyp. red.]did not respond in any way to the letter or change its behavior, which still constitutes a clear violation of the law Polish and European” – we read in the correspondence from July 19. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Technology, the lack of response from Whaleco Technology is the best example that the registration of such companies with Chinese capital in the EU is “only of an apparent nature, intended to falsely obtain the status of an enterprise.”
The Polish ministry writes to the Irish minister about the “blown egg”
The ministry adds that there would be nothing disturbing about this if the business was conducted in accordance with local and European regulations, and the country of origin was as open to foreign entrepreneurs as the EU is open to Chinese entrepreneurs. According to the Polish ministry, “in reality this is not the case.” “Not only do we tolerate Chinese entrepreneurs doing business in Europe (without similar openness). China on our domestic business), at the same time we are unable to enforce from them the legal regulations applicable in our country, which we often very strictly enforce from local entrepreneurs,” wrote the Polish Ministry of Development. The Ministry also asked the Irish minister whether, in his opinion, Whaleco Technology is a real EU entrepreneur with based in Ireland, or just “a shell, an apparent entity that we should not treat as an entrepreneur”.
The Ministry of Development and Technology gives an ultimatum
The Ministry of Development also added that if the company does not respect the regulations in force in the EU and Poland, the Ministry of Energy and Technology will take “all measures to prevent this entity from conducting business activity in Poland.” As for Shein, Leonard Lin, the company's global director for Public Affairs, declared that appropriate actions would be taken to comply with local regulations regarding, among others, customs and taxesconsumer protection, personal data protection. – We realize how important protection against unfair practices in the e-commerce industry is for Polish entrepreneurs, especially in the context of the operation of Asian platforms in Poland and Europe. That is why we are taking action on several levels to develop mechanisms that can help protect Polish business – emphasized Ignacy Niemczycki, Deputy Minister of Development and Technology, in an interview with money.pl. At the beginning of July we reported that The European Commission plans to impose tariffs on cheap goods purchased through Chinese online platformssuch as Temu, Shein and AliExpress. There was also a proposal to impose the obligation to pay VAT.