Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird filed a lawsuit against PDD Holdings and its subsidiary Whaleco on July 1. The suit, filed in Polk County, accuses the Temu e-commerce platform of violating the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.
The petition alleges Temu functions as hidden spyware to harvest sensitive user data. The lawsuit claims this information could be accessible to the Chinese government due to PDD's operations in China.
The filing further alleges Temu misrepresents product quality and uses deceptive pricing. It also claims the platform disregards intellectual property rights.
Iowa seeks civil penalties of up to $40,000 for each violation. The state also demands injunctions to halt these practices and reimbursement for affected consumers.