Counterfeits, dangerous products: AliExpress threatened with EU fine

The European Commission on Wednesday took a significant step towards imposing a substantial fine on Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress. The Commission preliminarily found that AliExpress has not adequately managed risks related to the sale of illegal products, despite numerous improvements.

The Brussels-based regulator, acting as the EU’s digital watchdog, believes AliExpress breached its obligation to assess and mitigate risks associated with the distribution of illegal products—ranging from counterfeits to items that fail to meet European safety standards.

This marks the first time the Commission has targeted this Alibaba subsidiary under the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA), which came fully into force last year to strengthen protections for internet users.

In its statement, the Commission highlighted that AliExpress underestimated these risks due to the limited resources allocated to its moderation system. It also failed to correctly enforce its sanctions policy against sellers repeatedly posting illegal content. The regulator pointed to systemic failures that rendered moderation efforts ineffective and easily circumvented by malicious sellers.

AliExpress now has access to the case file and may respond in writing to the preliminary findings. Should the Commission’s accusations be confirmed, the platform could face a fine of up to six percent of its annual global turnover and be placed under enhanced supervision until corrective measures are implemented.

The formal challenge announced Wednesday follows an investigation launched by the Commission in March 2024. However, it also acknowledged progress made over the past year, with AliExpress proposing improvements that the Commission has validated.

The regulator specifically noted that AliExpress addressed concerns related to monitoring and detecting illegal products—such as medicines, food supplements, and adult content that could harm users' health and minors’ well-being. The platform’s reporting mechanisms and complaint handling systems were deemed satisfactory.

Brussels also confirmed that AliExpress complies with legal requirements regarding advertisement transparency, recommendation systems, seller traceability, and data access for researchers.

“The measures taken today demonstrate the strength of the Digital Services Act in creating a safer online environment,” said European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen. She welcomed AliExpress’s commitment to becoming a safer platform for its users.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com