EU fines AliExpress 550 million euros for selling prohibited products
Brussels - The EU fined the Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress, a subsidiary of the giant Alibaba, 550 million euros (628.7 million dollars) today. The fine was for allowing the sale of illegal products to European consumers, including dangerous toys and counterfeit clothing.
AliExpress was sanctioned for failing to meet its obligations under the European Digital Services Act (DSA). The European Commission announced the penalty after more than two years of investigation. The DSA requires the company to “diligently assess and mitigate the risks associated with the sale of illegal, dangerous or counterfeit products on its platform”.
This is the highest fine issued by Brussels under the DSA since the powerful law was adopted in 2022. The European Commission believes that the system AliExpress implemented to detect products prohibited for sale was not functioning at all when its investigation began in March 2024.
As a result, “we identified a large number of counterfeit goods, as well as dangerous toys and cosmetics, which remained on sale for a very long time,” explained Henna Virkkunen, vice-president of the commission for digital, to journalists.
Furthermore, “the penalties applied by AliExpress to defaulting sellers were not effective because their shops remained active” long afterwards, she added. Finally, malicious sellers could very easily bypass product compliance verification systems because the dedicated teams were understaffed.
The penalty requires the site to submit measures to the European Commission within three months to comply with the DSA, under threat of periodic fines.
Last year, the European executive had accepted measures proposed by the group to amicably resolve several shortcomings identified during its investigations. It had, however, warned the group that it risked a penalty for these other reasons.
Adherence to the same rules
In a parallel investigation, the Commission had previously fined Temu, another Chinese platform very popular in Europe, 200 million euros in late May. This was also for allowing the distribution of illegal products, a penalty the company is contesting. X, the social network owned by billionaire Elon Musk, received a 120 million euro fine in late 2025 for failing to meet transparency obligations under the DSA.
This new penalty, announced on Monday, comes as the EU has increased measures in recent months to protect its market from Chinese competition, which is often deemed unfair. This includes a minimum tax of 3 euros on small parcels imported into the EU. The Commission has defended itself against claims of targeting AliExpress because of its origin.
“We are conducting investigations into several online platforms, many of which are based in the US, and many others in China, as well as in Europe,” emphasised Henna Virkkunen. “We do not take their origin into account, because everyone who wants to operate in Europe must respect the same rules.” Another Asian-origin sales platform, Shein, is also under scrutiny by Brussels.
More information to follow on this page.