AliExpress faces record EU fine over illegal product controls

The European Commission has fined AliExpress more than $625 million, the largest penalty yet under the Digital Services Act. Regulators said the online marketplace failed to adequately police illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products, despite an earlier order to bring its systems into compliance.

In a statement, the Commission said AliExpress did not properly assess or reduce risks connected to goods sold through its platform. The findings focused on product moderation, seller controls, brand authorization and the way the site’s recommendation and advertising tools could spread prohibited listings.

The Commission said AliExpress lacked enough staff on teams responsible for removing counterfeit and dangerous items. The Guardian reported that some moderators were given only tens of seconds to decide whether a flagged product met European Union standards.

EU officials said the weak enforcement allowed products to return after removal flags. According to the Commission, millions of listings reappeared online, and some stayed available for more than a month.

Regulators fault seller checks and recommendations

The Commission said sellers could avoid some automated controls by placing items in the wrong categories, where fewer checks applied. Regulators also found that AliExpress’s required brand authorization system did not work effectively and was understaffed.

The Commission said AliExpress did not penalize traders for selling illegal products in the way its own policy said it would. It also said the company failed to properly assess how its advertising and recommendation systems could increase the visibility of illegal goods rather than limit their reach.

EU testing found that a high volume of illegal products remained available despite AliExpress’s moderation efforts, including unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics, according to the Commission. Regulators also said AliExpress relied on one quantitative metric to judge whether its systems were working, and that the metric did not capture the scale of consumer harm.

The Commission said AliExpress had been ordered in June 2025 to comply with the Digital Services Act but did not make the required changes. It described the violations as particularly serious and said the penalty reflected both the nature of the breaches and the company’s delay in reducing risks that regulators had flagged.

AliExpress says it will appeal

AliExpress told Ars Technica it was surprised by what it called a disproportionate fine. The company said it plans to appeal, arguing that the Commission disregarded its risk-management framework and improvements it had made.

AliExpress also said its EU business is much smaller than its China business and that it invests substantial resources in risk assessment, product safety, risk mitigation and consumer protection. The company said it remains committed to meeting its obligations to consumers.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Union’s tech chief, said large e-commerce platforms cannot use scale as a reason for failing to stop illegal goods. She said one in five Europeans shops monthly at retail sites such as AliExpress, Temu and Shein.

“The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online—it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act,” Virkkunen said. “Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online.”

The AliExpress penalty is larger than earlier Digital Services Act fines against X and Temu. The Commission previously fined X nearly $140 million over several violations, including findings tied to paid blue checkmarks, and fined Temu more than $225 million after evidence showed EU consumers were very likely to encounter illegal items on that platform.

This story draws on original reporting from Ars Technica.