UPDATE 1-German cartel office investigating Temu over merchant price influencing

(Adds details from paragraph 5) BERLIN, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Germany's cartel office has initiated proceedings into Temu to examine whether the Chinese discount e-commerce platform is influencing merchants' pricing, it said on Wednesday. "We are investigating the suspicion that Temu could impose inadmissible requirements on merchants' pricing on the German marketplace," said office president Andreas Mundt. "Such requirements could constitute significant restrictions of competition and ultimately lead to price increases on other sales channels," he added. The proceedings have been opened against Dublin-based Whaleco Technology Limited, which operates as Temu in Germany. Temu's platform, offering a wide variety of products, has been open to German merchants for about a year, said Mundt. Temu currently has 19.3 million active users in Germany, while more than 100 million users use its European online marketplace every month, according to the office. (Reporting by Miranda Murray, editing by Thomas Seythal)

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