{"id":172579,"date":"2026-02-20T07:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172579\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T07:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T07:08:14","slug":"texas-sues-online-retailer-temu-known-for-dramatic-discounts-and-privacy-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172579\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sues online retailer Temu, known for dramatic discounts and privacy concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEXAS \u2013 Temu, an online retailer known for its deep discounts, has been sued by the state of Texas for what Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> describes as \u201cdeceptive marketing\u201d and \u201cillegal data harvesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paxton joins attorneys general from at least four other states suing Temu<\/a>, which is now one of the most downloaded apps in the United States, over data collection concerns.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit describes Temu as \u201cspyware disguised as a shopping app\u201d with \u201cimpossibly low prices on a seemingly endless variety of products.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state is arguing four different violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and is seeking an injunction against the company and potentially more than $1 million in monetary relief.<\/p>\n

Paxton argues the app has \u201cdangerous software functions\u201d that gain access to the user\u2019s location and phone storage, turning \u201cthe consumer into the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Temu\u2019s parent company PPD Holdings, Inc. is headquartered in Ireland, it is owned by Chinese software engineer Colin Huang and tied to Chinese online retailer Pinduoduo.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit argues that these ties pose a national security risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cChinese citizens (whether at home or abroad) and enterprises are obligated to support, assist and cooperate with China\u2019s national intelligence work,\u201d Paxton said in the lawsuit, citing Chinese law.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit further alleges Temu has used false, misleading or deceptive tactics to increase its market share.<\/p>\n

Paxton alleges that products will be shown to be on sale at a steep discount, when the discounted price is actually the regular market price. <\/p>\n

He also alleged the company is misrepresenting itself as an online retailer, losing $30 per order, according to one report, to fulfill its true purpose of collecting data.<\/p>\n

It is the fourth lawsuit filed by Paxton against Chinese companies this week.<\/p>\n

The timing of the lawsuits is notable, as they were filed during the first days of early voting for the 2026 Republican Primary, in which Paxton is seeking a nomination for the state\u2019s senate seat<\/a>, currently held by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.<\/p>\n

KSAT reached out to Temu for comment on the allegations in Paxton\u2019s lawsuit and will update this story when a response is received.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2013 Temu, an online retailer known for its deep discounts, has been sued by the state of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[910,9047,2409,1967,1932,2349,3621,69743,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-172579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-consumer","11":"tag-ken-paxton","12":"tag-lawsuit","13":"tag-money","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-temu","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-headlines","18":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}