Brussels hits AliExpress with a record Digital Services Act penalty

The European Commission's 550-million-euro penalty is the largest yet under the DSA, over unsafe and counterfeit goods.

The European Commission has fined AliExpress 550 million euros (about $629 million) for breaching the EU's Digital Services Act, calling it the highest penalty ever imposed under that law. The Commission found the marketplace failed to take effective measures to curb the spread of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products.

In its findings, the Commission said AliExpress assigned insufficient staff to verify products and left unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics available for weeks after they had been detected. The company has until October 20, 2026 to fix the breach or face additional periodic fines. The penalty is more than double the one levied on rival Chinese retailer Temu, which was fined over $230 million for similar violations in May. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen made the point that platform scale is no excuse and that risks must be tackled systematically so people can shop safely online.

Enforcement like this cuts against a simple more-and-cheaper reading of abundance. Cheap goods are not abundance if they are counterfeit or hazardous, and holding a dominant marketplace to a safety standard raises the floor on what buyers can trust when they order, which is the version of access worth having.

The caveats are about what happens next. The source does not indicate that AliExpress has responded to or admitted the findings, and because the remedy deadline is still ahead, whether the company complies, and whether further fines follow, remains to be determined.

Source: The Verge