For years, the business model of Chinese e-commerce giants was based on a simple strategy: offering millions of low-priced products that, thanks to EU duty exemptions for low-value shipments, went directly to the doors of European consumers. However, the time when platforms such as AliExpress, Shein and Temu operated in a regulatory grey area is coming to an end. Faced with increasing pressure from the European Commission, Alibaba – the owner of AliExpress – is going on the defensive, promising to radically tighten its control systems.
At recent hearings in Brussels, Eric Pelletier, Alibaba’s head of international affairs, admitted that the company has “much more to do”. This is a euphemism for the image and legal crisis the service finds itself in. AliExpress has been under formal investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA) since March 2024. The EU commissioners list a long list of failings: from the presence of counterfeits, to dangerous toys, to drastic cases of offers violating moral standards and child safety.
For European business, this dispute has an existential dimension. Christel Schaldemose, DSA’s lead rapporteur in the European Parliament, made it clear: this is not just about consumer safety, but about elementary market fairness. Local companies, burdened by the costs of certification, taxes and quality control, are unable to compete with platforms that until recently shifted product responsibility to anonymous Asian suppliers.
The figures speak for themselves – 5.8 billion low-value parcels entered the EU last year, an increase of 26%. This stream of goods has become too large for customs to ignore. Brussels plans to abolish the duty-free threshold, which will directly hit Chinese retailers’ margins.
AliExpress now pledges to put in place ‘legally binding commitments’, including automatic restrictions on the visibility of adult content and fast-track procedures to remove rogue sellers. However, words are not enough for EU regulators. Until algorithm-based monitoring systems demonstrate real effectiveness in blocking illegal offers, Chinese platforms face gigantic financial penalties and a further loss of trust in one of the world’s key markets. A new definition of cross-border trading is at stake – one in which price is no longer the sole determinant of success.
