20th July 2026 – (Hangzhou) The European Commission has imposed a €550 million (US$629 million) penalty on AliExpress for failing to prevent the sale of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit goods on its platform. It is the Commission’s third enforcement action under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which places heightened obligations on very large online platforms to tackle unlawful and harmful content.
Regulators opened proceedings in June last year after finding AliExpress had not properly assessed or mitigated the risks of illegal product dissemination. The company has been given until 20 October to set out corrective measures, with the Commission indicating it may decide in December whether further penalties are warranted should those plans fall short of DSA requirements.
Officials cited multiple compliance gaps, including an inadequate evaluation of staffing levels for risk review and an overestimation of the effectiveness of systems intended to detect and remove prohibited items. The Commission also faulted AliExpress’s recommender and advertising systems for amplifying illicit listings, and criticised the reliance on a single quantitative performance metric for content moderation. As a result, items ranging from counterfeit goods to unsafe toys and hazardous cosmetics were found to have remained available for weeks. Enforcement policies against errant sellers were described as ineffective, with sanctioned traders continuing to operate, while the mandatory “brand authorisation” programme was deemed understaffed, easily circumvented and therefore ineffective.
The Commission noted that the DSA’s relative novelty was treated as a mitigating factor; nonetheless, the sanction exceeds recent fines on other platforms for DSA breaches, including €120 million against X and €200 million against Temu. AliExpress, which counted an estimated 193 million users in Europe last year, has said it considers the decision and fine disproportionate, and is reviewing its options. The platform previously avoided a separate fine in June last year after agreeing measures to curb potentially illegal and pornographic materials, but now faces closer scrutiny as Brussels weighs the adequacy of its forthcoming compliance plan.
 under the Digital Services Act for inadequate controls on illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products, with tougher sanctions possible later this year){kind=link}