It’s not about that.

I discovered AliExpress more than a decade back, when I could import free of taxation any item below the value of 25€ and any item above that value up to 50€ would only be liable for VAT, up to €100. This was nice but what was sold under that bar was often the worst of the crop: poorly made, bad quality junk only worthy of being tossed in the garbage.

When it is established any item, regardless of price, will have VAT included directly in the site, many sellers disappeared as they no longer could push bad quality merchandise with no paper trail. The client got a better deal out of paying a little more.

Shein, Temu and other upstarts on that front, are simply replicating that. Cheap clothing, I read in an article, is causing a flood of the market with bad quality items and pushing for a fast fashion trend, with a rapid colection turnover. On the electronics front I’ve seen parts that I already buy at very low price in AliExpress for a tenth of the value; I can only guess the quality.

It’s not about being against the poor, it’s about preventing bad actors to flood the market with junk that is destined to quickly find its way to a landfill.