European Union fines AliExpress platform 550 million euros

The European Commission has imposed a fine of 550 million euros (approximately 630 million dollars) on the major Chinese trading platform AliExpress. This measure has gone down in history as the largest financial sanction imposed under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA). The decision was made due to serious shortcomings in the platform's safety and consumer protection. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .

According to ixbt.com, European regulators accuse the AliExpress platform of failing to establish sufficient control over the sale of illegal, dangerous, and counterfeit products. Investigations revealed that the platform did not fully assess the risks of the spread of prohibited products and did not take the necessary measures to remove them from the system. This posed a threat to the safety of millions of consumers in the European market.

Dangerous products and gaps in the control system

During the investigation conducted by the European Commission, it was found that counterfeit clothing, dangerous toys for children, and cosmetics with suspicious ingredients remained on sale on the AliExpress platform for weeks. Even after complaints were received from users, these products were not immediately removed. Worst of all, the platform's recommendation and advertising systems continued to show such illegal goods to buyers.

The regulator also drew attention to problems in the seller verification system. It turned out that AliExpress did not allocate enough staff to moderate suspicious listings. The brand authorization system had loopholes that could be easily bypassed. Some sellers deliberately changed the categories of their products to avoid strict checks.

DSA legislation and future measures

AliExpress has become the third major platform to be fined under the EU's DSA law. Previously, the social network X paid a fine of 120 million euros, and the Temu marketplace paid 200 million euros. Commissioner for Technology Henna Virkkunen noted that the number of AliExpress users in Europe reached 193 million last year, which means it is one of the largest trading platforms in the region.

The company is now required to submit a plan to address the identified problems by October 20. If the measures taken do not satisfy the European Commission, the regulator may impose additional periodic fines. For information, according to DSA legislation, the maximum penalty for serious violations can reach up to 6 percent of the company's annual global turnover.

This situation is also an important signal for users in Uzbekistan. When ordering products through AliExpress, it is recommended to pay attention to the certification of the goods and the seller's rating, as the control system on global platforms may not always work as perfectly as expected.