Will the Chinese Temu marketplace be blocked in Uzbekistan?

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The Chinese Temu marketplace may be suspended in Uzbekistan. This was announced by Kamronbek Mukhammediev, head of the e-commerce department of the National Agency for Promising Projects, on February 27, Spot reports.

From July 1, 2025, new rules for international platforms will come into force in Uzbekistan, including a register of notifications and a special register of e-commerce entities. According to the procedure, which came into force on December 28, 2024, only legal entities - residents of the Republic of Uzbekistan - can operate as e-commerce operators.

Kamronbek Mukhammediev noted Temu's aggressive marketing strategy to enter new markets abroad. According to the National Agency for Promising Projects, in 2024 the Chinese market spent $4 billion on marketing and price reductions, and this year their expenses could reach $10 billion.

“We are ready to ensure the protection of their rights and legitimate business interests and help them officially enter the Uzbek market, but they need to apply. There has been no such [interest] from Temu yet, but there is a move. We have previously said that if the conditions are not met, their activities will be suspended, even to the point of blocking,” Mukhammediev said.

When Spot asked about the possible date of the blocking, the head of the agency's e-commerce department replied that “it will happen soon.”

In turn, Vyacheslav Pak, the first deputy director of the agency, stressed that the “illegal activities” of foreign marketplaces “harm” the Uzbek economy. According to him, when delivering goods to the local market, taxes and customs payments are not paid, freight and payment are not carried out by third-party companies, and there is also an outflow of currency. The volume of currency outflow due to Temu alone exceeded $10 million in 2024.

“Either they come to Uzbekistan and open a branch here, or register with the tax authorities and become VAT payers,” Pak says.

In his opinion, the lack of representative offices of foreign markets in the republic deprives local consumers of the opportunity to return defective goods or file complaints.

For information, since the end of last year, the Temu mobile application has been among the most popular applications in Uzbekistan.

The Cabinet of Ministers' resolution on restricting the activities of foreign e-commerce platforms that are not registered in Uzbekistan was adopted in early 2025. This is not just about Temu, but also about forcing a number of other marketplaces such as AliExpress, Amazon, and Ozon, streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify, and booking aggregators such as Booking.com and Airbnb to pay taxes in Uzbekistan. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”