The European Commission has levied the largest fine ever imposed under the Digital Services Act (DSA) against AliExpress: €550 million, roughly $630 million. The charge is blunt — the platform systematically failed to prevent the sale of illegal products, including unsafe toys, counterfeit cosmetics, and fake clothing. The DSA, which came into full effect in 2024, requires very large online platforms to conduct annual risk assessments and take meaningful steps to mitigate systemic risks, including the spread of illegal goods.
What makes this penalty particularly consequential is not the figure itself but the precedent it sets. Until now, the most significant DSA fines had targeted social media companies over content moderation failures — hate speech, disinformation, and platform manipulação. Fining an e-commerce marketplace for physical goods violations opens an entirely new enforcement front and signals that the EU views product safety as a systemic risk on par with information integrity.
The Commission found that AliExpress allocated "insufficient staff" to product verification and took "multiple weeks" to remove dangerous items after detection. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen's message was unmistakable: "Scale is not an excuse." E-commerce giants cannot hide behind their volume as a regulatory shield. The decision dismantles the longstanding industry argument that policing millions of listings from third-party sellers is practically impossible.
The timing is telling. This fine comes months after Temu — another Chinese rival — was hit with a $230 million penalty for similar DSA violations in May. Brussels is clearly signaling a coordinated crackdown on Chinese marketplaces operating in Europe, with a clear pattern emerging: both companies were penalized for the same category of failures, suggesting a systematic issue in how cross-border e-commerce platforms handle product compliance.
AliExpress has until October 20, 2026, to remedy the breaches or face additional periodic fines. The tight deadline is no coincidence: the EU wants concrete results before the European fiscal year-end. For consumers, the practical outcome could be positive — safer products and stronger traceability across digital storefronts, as well as clearer liability rules for what happens when something goes wrong. For AliExpress, the cost extends well beyond the fine itself: the platform's credibility in the European market is now squarely on trial, and the clock is ticking.
Source: The Verge
