BRUSSELS – In a landmark enforcement of the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission announced Monday that it has issued a €550 million ($629 million) fine to Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress, marking the largest penalty ever handed down for violations of the bloc’s sweeping digital regulation. The penalty comes on the heels of similar enforcement actions against other major platforms, setting a clear precedent for the EU’s aggressive crackdown on non-compliance by global online marketplaces operating in its single market.
This latest fine follows a €200 million penalty issued to another China-based online retailer, Temu, just months prior, and a $120 million penalty imposed last year on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, for failing to meet DSA obligations. For AliExpress, the penalty also arrives less than three weeks after its parent company, Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba, agreed to pay $600 million to settle a long-running dispute with U.S. authorities over claims the firm facilitated the import and sale of illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-manufacturing equipment into the United States.
European officials emphasized that the fine stems from AliExpress’s persistent failure to systematically curb the trade of dangerous and illicit goods on its platform, including counterfeit apparel, children’s toys that fail EU safety standards, toxic cosmetics, and a range of other prohibited products that put consumers at risk. Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President responsible for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, stated in an official release that the proliferation of these harmful goods is not an inevitable side effect of online commerce, but a direct result of AliExpress falling short of its mandatory obligations under the DSA.
“Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online,” Virkkunen said. “Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take urgent corrective action.”
The commission’s investigation found that up until the bloc’s preliminary ruling in June 2024, AliExpress had not implemented sufficient safeguards to root out illegal and unsafe listings across its platform. While the company offered formal commitments to upgrade its compliance systems following the preliminary finding, the commission still moved forward with the full penalty to reflect the severity of the earlier non-compliance. AliExpress now faces an October 20 deadline to submit a detailed, actionable remediation plan outlining concrete steps it will take to address gaps in its systemic risk assessment and mitigation processes.
Enshrined into EU law in 2022 and fully enforceable for major platforms since early 2024, the DSA is a landmark regulatory framework designed to protect digital users by forcing large online platforms to crack down on illegal and harmful content—ranging from dangerous counterfeit goods to incitement of violence and genocide—while upholding European citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy and free speech. The regulation requires very large online platforms, defined as those with more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU, to conduct regular mandatory risk assessments and implement targeted mitigation measures to address systemic harms tied to their services.
In a written response emailed to the Associated Press following the announcement, AliExpress pushed back against the penalty, arguing it has made substantial proactive investments to align its operations with DSA requirements since the regulation entered into force. The company said it “has been, and continues to be, firmly committed to meeting our obligations and we have invested substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection.”
AliExpress rejected the fine as disproportionate, claiming it does not fairly reflect the compliance framework the company has already built, nor the significant upgrades it has already rolled out to strengthen safety protocols. “We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options,” the company added, leaving the door open to an appeal of the penalty.