The European Commission has fined the Chinese online retail platform AliExpress a record €550 million for failing to prevent the sale of illegal, counterfeit, and dangerous goods on its website. The historic penalty is the largest ever imposed under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which governs consumer protection and digital safety. Investigators found that AliExpress lacked sufficient staff to properly review product listings, often allocating only tens of seconds to verify if toys, cosmetics, and garments met European safety standards, allowing millions of non-compliant items to remain online for weeks.
This landmark penalty significantly surpasses previous fines issued under the DSA, including a €120 million imposed on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, and a €200 million fine levied against rival Chinese shopping site Temu in May. Temu was penalized for similar failures to restrict dangerous products and remains under active EU investigation, potentially facing further sanctions. While the €550 million fine is substantial, it represents less than 1% of the €122 billion in annual revenue generated by Alibaba, the parent company of AliExpress, which could have faced a maximum penalty of 6% of its global revenue.
AliExpress immediately condemned the commission’s decision, calling the multi-million-euro penalty “disproportionate” and vowing to appeal. The company argued that the ruling ignored its robust risk management framework and the proactive upgrades it has made to prevent counterfeit and mislabeled products from bypassing its internal safety barriers. However, EU officials emphasized that the penalty was not triggered by the mere presence of illegal goods, but rather by the platform’s systematic failure during a two-year investigation to build effective barriers to protect European consumers.
