cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/47451224

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/52742292

Temu was hit with a 200 million euro ($232 million) fine Thursday after a European Union investigation found the Chinese online retailer failed to protect consumers from illegal products like toxic or hazardous toys and unsafe electronics.

The 27-nation EU’s fine follows preliminary findings last year that Temu was exposing consumers to a high risk of products sold on its platform like baby toys and small electronics that didn’t comply with EU consumer safety rules.

The bloc’s executive arm issued the penalty under the Digital Services Act, or DSA, a wide-ranging rulebook that requires online platforms to do more to keep internet users safe from harmful content or dodgy goods, under the threat of hefty fines.

It’s the second time Brussels has issued a fine under three-year-old DSA, following a $120 million penalty last year for Elon Musk’s social media site X.

...

The European Commission said Temu failed to identify, analyze and assess the systemic risks of illegal goods for sale on the platform and the resulting harm to European consumers.

Investigators had carried out a “mystery shopping exercise” that turned up a number of “non-compliant” products, including many electronic device chargers that failed basic safety tests. They also found a very high percentage of baby toys that posed safety risks, either because they contained chemicals at levels that exceeded safety limits or because they had parts that came off and could be a suffocation risk.

...

Risk assessments are “not box‐ticking exercises,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkunnen said.

“Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not comprehensive,” she said in a prepared statement. “It leaves regulators, users, and the public in the dark about the true scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu. Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.”

Temu has until the end of August to submit an “action plan” to remedy the problem. It could be hit with additional daily, weekly or monthly fines if it fails to comply.

...

Web Archive link

It is perhaps not surprising that the price of the Steam Deck has gone up, given the state of everything, but even so, just how far it's jumped is straight-up shocking. The 512GB OLED model has gone from $549 to $789, and the 1TB unit has leapt from $649 to $949, an increase of nearly 50%.

So you can enjoy the same gut-punch sticker shock I felt, this is what it looks like in my home country of Canada, where a 1TB Steam Deck now costs $1,349 plus applicable sales taxes—so, in my province, that sucker is going to ring up to well over $1,500. To which I say, what the hell?

And look, it's true. Memory, SSDs, and GPUs have all skyrocketed in price, largely due to the increasingly desperate pursuit of AI, and the expectation is that as bad as things are, it's going to get worse.

In a similar vein, "global logistical challenges" points us primarily toward the war launched by the US against Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has utterly screwed everything and similarly shows no movement toward a satisfactory resolution and will almost certainly get worse.

Regardless of the reasons, though, it's a hell of a jump, and I imagine an awful lot of people who were gearing up to buy a Steam Deck are now postponing those places. It also bodes poorly for the upcoming Steam Machine, the SteamOS-powered gaming PC announced in 2025. In March, Valve recommitted to launching sometime in 2026, but a date and pricing still haven't been announced—and given the importance of putting it out at a palatable price, I will not be at all surprised if Valve decides to roll the dice on everything sucking less in 2027.

The good news, as far as it goes, is that Steam Decks are now back in stock, so you can buy one—if you've got a Scrooge McDuck-sized pile of cash lying around, that is.

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/52742292

Temu was hit with a 200 million euro ($232 million) fine Thursday after a European Union investigation found the Chinese online retailer failed to protect consumers from illegal products like toxic or hazardous toys and unsafe electronics.

The 27-nation EU’s fine follows preliminary findings last year that Temu was exposing consumers to a high risk of products sold on its platform like baby toys and small electronics that didn’t comply with EU consumer safety rules.

The bloc’s executive arm issued the penalty under the Digital Services Act, or DSA, a wide-ranging rulebook that requires online platforms to do more to keep internet users safe from harmful content or dodgy goods, under the threat of hefty fines.

It’s the second time Brussels has issued a fine under three-year-old DSA, following a $120 million penalty last year for Elon Musk’s social media site X.

...

The European Commission said Temu failed to identify, analyze and assess the systemic risks of illegal goods for sale on the platform and the resulting harm to European consumers.

Investigators had carried out a “mystery shopping exercise” that turned up a number of “non-compliant” products, including many electronic device chargers that failed basic safety tests. They also found a very high percentage of baby toys that posed safety risks, either because they contained chemicals at levels that exceeded safety limits or because they had parts that came off and could be a suffocation risk.

...

Risk assessments are “not box‐ticking exercises,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkunnen said.

“Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not comprehensive,” she said in a prepared statement. “It leaves regulators, users, and the public in the dark about the true scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu. Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.”

Temu has until the end of August to submit an “action plan” to remedy the problem. It could be hit with additional daily, weekly or monthly fines if it fails to comply.

...

Web Archive link

Random fun fact: This is the game where Ultimecia (Edea) offs the president of Galbadia in front of the whole crowd on live TV.

tldr; Donald Jr’s new father in law was Epstein’s banker.

Not quite sure how much more like this needs to come out before yanks take down the Epstein Class.

This isn’t going to stop and more people are going to get hurt.