EU Issues Record Fine to AliExpress Over Unsafe Goods

The European Union has taken a major step in regulating online shopping by issuing a record €550 million fine against the Chinese retail platform AliExpress. This decision follows a long investigation into how the company manages the sale of illegal, fake, and potentially dangerous goods on its website. The fine is the largest ever imposed under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is a set of European laws designed to make the internet safer and protect consumers from harmful content and products.

According to The Guardian, the European Commission found that AliExpress failed to stop the sale of items such as unsafe children’s toys, dangerous cosmetics, and kitchen gadgets. Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, stated that the spread of these products is not an unavoidable part of online shopping. She argued that it is a clear failure by the company to meet its legal obligations. Virkkunen noted that scale is not an excuse, and companies must identify and address risks systematically to ensure consumers can shop safely.

Ars Technica reports that the European Commission discovered serious problems with how AliExpress handles product moderation. The investigation found that the company did not have enough staff to check the safety of items. Some moderators were reportedly given only "tens of seconds" to decide if a product met European standards. Because of this, many dangerous items that were flagged for removal stayed on the website for weeks or even months. Furthermore, the commission found that the platform’s own recommendation systems were actually helping to spread these illegal goods by suggesting them to shoppers.

Another issue highlighted by the investigation was how easily sellers could avoid safety rules. Ars Technica noted that some sellers simply mislabeled their products to bypass automatic safety checks. The platform’s brand authorization system was also described as ineffective, and the company reportedly failed to penalize traders who sold illegal items, despite claims that it would do so. This lack of oversight meant that for many sellers, the risk of being caught remained very low.

This is not the first time the European Union has targeted large retail platforms. Earlier this year, the platform Temu was fined €200 million for similar failures, and the social media company X was fined €120 million for issues related to transparency and deceptive verification badges. Officials noted that the fine against AliExpress was not just because illegal products were found, but because the company failed to build the necessary barriers to protect consumers from these risks in the first place.

In response to the news, AliExpress has strongly condemned the decision. The company described the fine as "disproportionate," a term meaning that the punishment is too large for the situation. In a public statement, AliExpress said it disagrees with the commission’s decision and claimed that the fine does not properly reflect the work it has already done to improve its safety systems. The company stated that it has a sound risk management framework and has made significant, proactive enhancements to its platform. As a result, AliExpress has announced that it will appeal the decision, taking the matter to a higher authority to challenge the penalty.

For consumers, the situation highlights the ongoing challenges of shopping on massive global platforms. While these sites offer low prices and a wide variety of goods, regulators are increasingly concerned about the quality and safety of what is being sold. The European Commission pointed out that one in five Europeans shops monthly at retail sites like AliExpress, Temu, and Shein, making the safety of these platforms a major priority for the bloc. As the legal battle between the European Union and AliExpress continues, the case serves as a warning to other tech companies that they must take responsibility for the products sold through their digital marketplaces.