AliExpress hit with $627m EU fine over illegal product risks

Commission found weaknesses in AliExpress' risk controls and moderation.

China's AliExpress has been fined $627m (€550m) by the European Commission for breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to adequately assess and mitigate the risks of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its e-commerce platform.

The commission said AliExpress overstated the effectiveness of its moderation systems, assigned insufficient staff to review illegal listings and failed to properly assess how its recommendation and advertising systems promoted illegal products.

The regulator said that AliExpress relied on inadequate metrics to measure the effectiveness of its moderation efforts, allowing a high volume of illegal products to remain or reappear on the platform despite enforcement measures.

The investigation also found that AliExpress failed to implement effective safeguards to reduce systemic risks. Illegal products, including counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and hazardous cosmetics, remained available for weeks even after being detected.

AliExpress also failed to consistently enforce penalties against traders selling illegal products, while weak product categorisation checks allowed sellers to bypass compliance requirements. Its brand authorisation system, intended to prevent counterfeit sales, was also found to be ineffective.

The commission said the fine reflects the seriousness and duration of the breaches, which continued until at least June 2025. It noted that the DSA's relatively recent implementation was considered a mitigating factor when calculating the penalty.

AliExpress has until 20 October 2026 to submit an action plan detailing how it will address the identified shortcomings. The European Board for Digital Services will review the proposal before the commission issues its final implementation decision.

Failure to comply with the order could result in periodic penalty payments, the commission said.

The commission launched its investigation in March 2024. In June 2025, AliExpress accepted legally binding commitments addressing several concerns, but the issues related to systemic risks from illegal products remained unresolved and led to the enforcement decision.