EU fines AliExpress €550 million over illegal and unsafe products
The European Commission has fined AliExpress €550 million for failing to properly assess and reduce risks linked to the sale of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its platform, Qazinform News Agency reports.
According to the Commission, AliExpress breached the requirements of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The platform failed to effectively identify and remove illegal products and did not have enough staff to review listings.
Counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics could remain on sale for weeks and continued to appear in advertisements and recommendations. Some stores remained active even after being penalized.
Sellers also bypassed checks by placing products in the wrong categories or exploiting weaknesses in the brand authorization system. AliExpress has now been ordered to address the violations.
“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,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said.
She stressed that the size of the platform could not serve as an excuse. The company must systematically identify risks and take steps to protect consumers.
The fine was calculated based on the severity and duration of the violations, as well as the number of EU users affected. The breaches continued at least until June 2025. The Commission also took into account the fact that the Digital Services Act is relatively new.
AliExpress has until October 20, 2026, to submit an action plan outlining how it will address the violations. Failure to comply could result in additional penalties.
The European Commission opened formal proceedings against AliExpress in March 2024. In June 2025, the company made a series of commitments concerning advertising transparency, recommender systems and mechanisms for reporting illegal products. However, the main concerns related to risk assessment and mitigation remained unresolved.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Temu had faced a similar penalty, with the European Commission fining the platform €200 million over illegal and unsafe products sold on its marketplace.