On 20 July, the European Commission imposed a fine of €550 million, or approximately $629 million, on AliExpress. This is the highest fine to date imposed under the EU’s Digital Services Act, known as the DSA. Brussels found that the platform, which is part of the Alibaba Group, had failed to effectively assess and mitigate the risks associated with the sale of illegal, dangerous and counterfeit products.
According to the Commission, the problem concerned, amongst other things, counterfeit clothing, dangerous toys and cosmetics. Some listings remained available for several weeks, even though they should have been detected and removed earlier. The concerns also covered the functioning of recommendation and advertising systems, insufficient resources allocated to monitoring listings, and ineffective sanctions against sellers breaching the rules.
The proceedings were formally launched in March 2024. In June 2025, the Commission presented its preliminary findings and accepted some of AliExpress’s commitments. These related, amongst other things, to the transparency of adverts, recommendation systems, the handling of complaints and the identification of sellers. However, the current fine relates to insufficient measures to mitigate the risk of the distribution of illegal products.
AliExpress has until 20 October 2026 to submit a remedial plan. If the Commission deems the measures taken to be insufficient, the platform may face further periodic payments. The DSA allows for fines of up to 6 per cent of a company’s global annual turnover.
The company disagrees with the decision. It claims that the fine is disproportionate and fails to take into account its investments in product safety and risk management systems. AliExpress has announced that it will challenge the ruling.
The case demonstrates that the responsibility of e-commerce platforms does not end with the removal of individual listings. EU regulations also require continuous risk assessment, effective monitoring of sellers and the restriction of mechanisms that may increase the visibility of illegal products.
