The European Commission fined AliExpress 550 million euros ($629 million) on Monday, the largest penalty imposed so far under the EU Digital Services Act, saying that the Alibaba-owned e-commerce platform had failed to adequately assess and mitigate the risks associated with the sale of illegal, unsafe, and counterfeit products.
The Commission claimed that AliExpress had underestimated the resources needed to review potentially illegal products, overstated the effectiveness of its moderation systems, and failed to properly assess how its recommendation and advertising systems could amplify the spread of illegal goods. It also concluded that the platform lacked effective mechanisms to detect counterfeit products, enforce penalties against offending sellers, and prevent merchants from circumventing product compliance checks through miscategorization.
The Commission ordered AliExpress to submit an action plan by Oct 20 outlining measures to remedy the breaches. Failure to comply could result in additional fines.
The European Commission announced the investigation into AliExpress in March 2024. It said that some commitments previously offered by AliExpress had already been accepted to address other concerns, leaving systemic risk assessment and mitigation as the remaining issues.
