EU fines AliExpress record €550m over illegal goods
The European Commission has imposed its largest penalty under the Digital Services Act, signalling that platforms can no longer use sheer scale as an excuse for failing to block counterfeit and dangerous products from millions of consumers.
The European Commission has fined AliExpress €550m (£470m), the largest penalty issued under the Digital Services Act, after finding the Chinese e-commerce platform systematically failed to prevent the sale of illegal, counterfeit and dangerous goods.
Investigators discovered that AliExpress lacked the staff to properly assess products, giving reviewers just "tens of seconds" to judge whether items met EU standards. The company’s internal risk assessments failed, and its recommendation algorithms actively promoted non-compliant goods to users.
Even when illegal products were flagged, they frequently remained online for weeks. The commission found millions of flagged items reappearing on the platform, with sellers easily bypassing weak barriers by miscategorising counterfeit fashion as unbranded clothing.
The fine dwarfs previous DSA penalties, including a €200m fine handed to Temu in May and a €120m fine for X over deceptive verification practices. However, at less than 1% of the €122bn revenue generated last year by parent company Alibaba, the financial impact is unlikely to strain the business. The maximum possible penalty under the 2024 legislation was 6% of global annual revenue.
Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said the fine establishes a clear boundary for online retail. "The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online – it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act. Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online."
Brussels is drawing a strict line between the inevitable presence of rogue sellers online and a platform's legal duty to build functional defences. Officials stressed the fine was not triggered by the mere discovery of illegal goods, but by AliExpress's failure to implement required mitigations. Previous EU sampling of large e-commerce sites found severe non-compliance, with 65% of cosmetics, 63% of food supplements, and 60% of personal protection equipment failing to meet standards.
AliExpress immediately condemned the penalty as "disproportionate". The company said: "We disagree with today’s decision and the disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made. We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options."
After an investigation lasting more than two years, the company now faces immense pressure to overhaul its European operations. As the bloc's largest online retail operator with 193 million users, significantly ahead of Shein and Temu, any operational changes will have a substantial impact on the broader e-commerce market.
