European Commission Imposes €550 Million Fine on AliExpress
The European Commission has fined AliExpress €550 million for violating its obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to properly assess and reduce the risks associated with the sale of illegal, unsafe, and counterfeit products on its e-commerce platform.
The Commission has also ordered AliExpress to take corrective measures to comply with the DSA and strengthen consumer protection across the European Union.
Failure to Diligently Assess Risks
The Commission found that AliExpress failed to adequately assess the risks linked to the dissemination of illegal, unsafe, and counterfeit products on its platform in several key areas.
The company did not properly evaluate whether it had sufficient staff to review potentially illegal listings and significantly overestimated the effectiveness of its systems for detecting and removing unlawful products. As a result, it failed to account for the imbalance between the number of human moderators and their workload.
The investigation also found that AliExpress did not sufficiently assess how its recommender and advertising systems contributed to the spread of illegal products. Testing conducted by the Commission showed that many illegal items continued to be recommended or advertised to consumers before they were removed.
In addition, AliExpress relied on only one quantitative indicator to measure the effectiveness of its moderation efforts. The Commission concluded that this metric did not accurately measure whether illegal products were being prevented from appearing or reappearing on the platform. Independent testing further showed that a significant number of illegal products remained available despite the platform’s moderation efforts.
Failure to Mitigate Identified Systemic Risks
The Commission also determined that AliExpress failed to implement effective measures to reduce the risks associated with illegal products.
Its product detection system did not function effectively, allowing counterfeit goods, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics, and other illegal products to remain on the platform for several weeks even after being identified.
The investigation further found that AliExpress did not properly enforce its penalty policy against traders repeatedly selling illegal products. Many sellers continued operating despite previous enforcement actions.
Product Compliance Checks Were Easily Circumvented
The Commission found that AliExpress’ product compliance checks could be bypassed through product miscategorisation.
According to the findings, the company assigned insufficient staff to verify whether products had been placed in the correct categories. As a result, dishonest sellers intentionally listed products under incorrect categories with less stringent compliance requirements, allowing non-compliant products to be published without proper review.
Counterfeit Product Controls Found Ineffective
Counterfeit products were identified as another major concern during the investigation.
The Commission concluded that AliExpress’ mandatory brand authorisation system, designed to prevent counterfeit sales, was ineffective and lacked adequate staffing. This allowed traders to bypass the verification process and publish counterfeit products that were only removed after complaints or later reviews.
The Commission noted that counterfeit products not only pose risks to consumers but also undermine legitimate businesses that invest in product design, safety testing, quality assurance, and innovation.
Fine Based on Serious and Prolonged Breaches
The €550 million fine was calculated based on the nature, severity, and duration of the violations, which continued until at least June 2025, when the Commission issued its preliminary findings.
The Commission stated that AliExpress’ failure to conduct proper risk assessments and effectively mitigate systemic risks represented serious violations of the Digital Services Act.
However, it also considered mitigating factors, including the relatively recent implementation of the DSA, when determining the final penalty.
AliExpress Given Deadline to Comply
AliExpress has until 20 October 2026 to submit a detailed action plan outlining how it will address the identified shortcomings.
The European Board for Digital Services will review the plan within one month of submission before providing its opinion. The European Commission will then issue its final decision and establish a deadline for implementing the required measures.
Failure to comply with the Commission’s decision could result in additional periodic financial penalties.
Background of the Investigation
The European Commission launched formal proceedings against AliExpress on 14 March 2024 to assess possible violations of the Digital Services Act relating to risk management, content moderation, trader traceability, advertising transparency, recommender systems, complaint handling, and researcher access to platform data.
On 18 June 2025, the Commission accepted a series of commitments offered by AliExpress addressing several areas of concern, including advertising transparency, recommender systems, and notice-and-action mechanisms. However, the commitments did not resolve concerns regarding the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks linked to illegal products.
The final non-compliance decision was based on AliExpress’ 2023 and 2024 risk assessment reports, additional information provided by the company, responses to formal information requests, submissions from third parties, and the Commission’s own investigative findings.