EU Fines AliExpress Record €550 Million for Unsafe and Counterfeit Goods

EU fines AliExpress a record €550 million for selling unsafe products and counterfeits

July 27

The European Commission fined the Chinese online shopping platform AliExpress a record €550 million (nearly $629 million) on July 20 for failing to effectively prevent the sale of unsafe products and counterfeit goods.

This penalty is the highest ever imposed for violations of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) across its 27 member states.

"The proliferation of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics, and other illegal and hazardous items is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online. This constitutes a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act," the European Commission stated in a press release.

Additionally, the European Commission has set a deadline of October 20 for AliExpress to submit a plan to rectify its failures, including its failure to properly assess and mitigate the risks that have emerged.

AliExpress, for its part, responded that it has invested significant resources to comply with its obligations, including product safety and consumer protection, since the DSA came into effect, and described the fine as disproportionate and excessive.

This action comes less than three weeks after reports emerged that AliExpress's parent company, Alibaba, would have to pay the U.S. government $600 million to settle allegations of shipping illegal pharmaceuticals and goods to the United States.

The European Commission has previously fined the online shopping platform Temu €200 million for similar DSA violations in recent months, and last year fined Elon Musk's social network X €120 million.

Ref & Photo; AP
Photo; AP, iStock

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