Temu Takes Action Against Fake Greeting Cards

Sat Oct 25 2025 22:08:59 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Temu collaborates with the greeting card industry to address copyright issues, promising faster removal of counterfeit designs.

Temu, the online shopping giant, has agreed to a faster removal process for counterfeit greeting cards following complaints from designers. The company is working closely with the Greeting Card Association to create a tailored takedown system aimed at protecting artists’ intellectual property. Previously, designers faced lengthy processes to remove copied images, but with the new system, they can submit a single link to eliminate multiple products at once. Temu claims this new approach will also integrate AI to prevent future copyright infringements. As a result, many card makers, like Amanda Mountain of Lola Design, are hopeful that their creative efforts will receive the respect they deserve.

Online shopping giant Temu has agreed to work with the greeting card industry to remove copied designs from its site more quickly.

Card firms say hundreds of their copyrighted images have been used to create cheap rip-offs, costing them thousands of pounds in lost sales.

Designers told the BBC the process for getting the plagiarised listings removed has been like the fairground game 'whack-a-mole' with copied products re-appearing within days.

Temu said protecting intellectual property was a top priority and that it was encouraging sellers to join the trial of a new takedown process specifically for the greetings card industry.

Amanda Mountain, the co-founder of York-based Lola Design, discovered the catalogue of designs she had built up over a decade had nearly all been copied.

She found the images she had created had been lifted and were being advertised by other sellers on cards and other products like t-shirts.

Amanda bought one of the cards using her design and found the image was distorted and the paper was of a poorer quality than hers.

It's not a nice feeling to see something you've poured all your love and hours into taken within minutes, she told the BBC. I was in shock, and I actually thought to myself 'what is the point of me still designing, I might as well just stop now'.

After pressure from the Greeting Card Association (GCA), Temu has now put in place a bespoke takedown process for the industry which, it says, will mean stolen designs are removed more quickly and won't be able to be re-uploaded.

Previously, card firms would have to report each individual listing but, as part of the trial, they will now only have to submit one link. The software will remove the product and any others using the same design.

According to the GCA, the system will then use AI to log the designer's original creation as a protected image. It will then block any products using that design before they appear for sale.

In a statement, Temu said intellectual property protection is a top priority and that it had invested heavily in resources to strengthen trust with brands, sellers and consumers. It said most requests to take down copyrighted content were resolved within three working days, but greeting card firms were being encouraged to join the new trial which it said would lead to more products being removed automatically. The system is bespoke to the card industry, however, the BBC understands it could be used as a model for similar or alternative processes for other products.

Amanda Fergusson, the chief executive of the GCA, said the industry welcomed the changes. We know our members feel very strongly about copycat sellers, and what's more we also know customers are often disappointed by cheap copies, she said.

At some point, it's going to be the consumers that are going to be affected, not just us as designers, because there won't be any high streets, Amanda said. She also had a message for people buying copycat cards: Cheap always comes at a cost.