The European Union has imposed a record fine of 550 million euros, or about $630 million, on Chinese online retailer AliExpress for failing to prevent the sale of counterfeit and unsafe products through its platform.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, announced the penalty on July 20. It is the largest fine imposed under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the bloc’s sweeping online-safety law that covers everything from social media content moderation to targeted advertising and illegal goods on e-commerce sites.
The commission said its investigation, launched in March 2024, found that products sold through AliExpress did not always comply with the EU’s environmental and safety standards.
“Many illegal products, from counterfeit products to unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics, circulated on the platform and, even if detected, remained online for multiple weeks,” the commission said.
Regulators found that AliExpress did not employ enough staff to properly assess whether products were legal. In some cases, reviewers were given only “tens of seconds” to determine whether an item met EU requirements.
They also said illegal products were promoted through AliExpress’s recommendation systems before being taken down.
“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,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, said in a statement.
“Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and requesting that it take action.”
AliExpress condemned the fine as excessive.
“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,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options.”
AliExpress did not respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.
AliExpress offered a series of commitments to the commission in June 2025 aimed at addressing concerns over how it monitored illegal products. At the time, regulators said the company may have underestimated the risks posed by goods sold through its platform.
The company now has until Oct. 20 to submit a plan explaining how it will address the commission’s concerns.
The penalty is substantially larger than other high-profile fines previously imposed under the DSA.
Elon Musk’s X was fined 120 million euros, or about $140 million, in December 2025, over several alleged violations, including what the commission described as a “deceptive” verification system.
Regulators said the platform awarded blue checkmark badges without meaningfully confirming the identities of account holders and failed to provide sufficient transparency about its advertising practices.
The fine drew condemnation from U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who described it as an “attack on all American tech platforms and the American people.”
More recently, the EU fined Chinese e-commerce platform Temu 200 million euros, or about $232 million, in May for allegedly failing to prevent the sale of illegal and dangerous products. Temu, which is owned by China’s PDD Holdings, said it disagreed with the decision and considered the fine disproportionate.
Despite its record size, the AliExpress penalty represents less than 1 percent of the approximately $139 billion in revenue generated last year by its parent company, Alibaba Group.
Under the DSA, companies found to have violated the law can be fined as much as 6 percent of their global annual revenue.
Reuters contributed to this report
