TEMU Penalizes Seller $147,000 for Non-compliant Lithium Battery in Car Vacuum Cleaners

Recently, Temu issued several pop-up notifications to its sellers, all related to product quality violation notices. One significant incident involved a car vacuum cleaner sold on the platform that caused burning and smoking, leading to personal injuries and property damage. Investigations revealed that the seller had illicitly replaced key components, specifically the lithium batteries, resulting in diminished product quality and subsequent accidents. As a consequence, TEMU's response included delisting the product, recalling all non-compliant items, and imposing a fine of $147,000 on the seller for compensation.

This incident has caused alarm among sellers operating on platforms like TEMU, raising concerns about the compliance requirements for batteries. To address these concerns, HOPPT BATTERY has compiled a list of compliance requirements for batteries, taking Amazon USA as an example:

Compliance Requirements for Button and Coin Batteries: Button batteries, also known as coin batteries, are single-cell batteries resembling small semi-silver cans with diameters ranging from 5 to 25 millimeters and heights of 1 to 6 millimeters. They provide a voltage of 1 to 5 volts and are used in watches, computer clocks, hearing aids, and other small devices. The bottom part of the battery (the positive pole) is typically made of stainless steel, with the metal top cap insulated from the bottom, forming the negative pole. These batteries come in various forms, including alkaline, silver, zinc-air, and lithium batteries.

Testing Standards: To be compliant, batteries must meet either of the following:

• 16 CFR Part 1700.15 (Poison Prevention Packaging Standards)
• 16 CFR Part 1700.20 (Testing Procedures for Special Packaging)

Or meet one of the following:

• ANSI C18.3M (Safety Standards for Portable Lithium Primary Cells and Batteries)