Overview
- The European Commission announced on Monday that it has fined AliExpress €550 million for breaching the Digital Services Act by not adequately assessing or mitigating systemic risks linked to illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products.
- Commission investigators found that AliExpress relied too heavily on automated detection, staffed too few human moderators and in some cases allowed flagged listings to remain online for weeks before removal.
- Officials identified simple evasion tactics used by sellers, including mislabeling or recategorizing items and bypassing the platform's brand-authorization checks, which let counterfeit toys, cosmetics and clothing reach EU buyers.
- AliExpress must deliver a detailed remediation plan by October 20, 2026 for Brussels to assess, and the Commission warned it may impose additional coercive fines or measures if implementation is inadequate.
- The €550 million penalty is the largest DSA-era fine so far, follows earlier sanctions against Temu and X, raises stakes for large marketplaces operating in the EU and prompted AliExpress to say it disagrees with the decision while defending steps it has taken.