The European Commission (EC) hit Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress with a record €550 million ($629 million) fine for allowing the sale of counterfeit and harmful products in the bloc. "The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products... is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act [DSA]," said EC's Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen in a press release.

The fine is the largest ever imposed under the DSA, which requires large platforms like AliExpress (owned by China's Alibaba) to police the spread of illegal and unsafe products and services. That lack of diligence "is very dangerous for our consumers, but it's also unfair for those companies that are complying with all our rules," Virkkunen added. 

The EC opened an investigation into AliExpress in March 2024 over suspected breaches to the DSA, including the platform's advertising and recommendation systems. Investigators found "millions" of counterfeit products, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics on sale even after being flagged. The EC determined that AliExpress didn't have enough staff to perform proper oversight, and that employees in charge of screening products sometimes had just "tens of seconds" to decide whether they met EU standards. 

The record fine reflects the scope of the problem and AliExpress's failure to take measures to stop it. "Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action," said Virkkunen.

AliExpress condemned the fine as disproportionate, though it didn't say whether it planned to appeal. "We disagree with today's decision and the disproportionate fine, which ‌does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we ⁠have made," the platform told The Guardian in a statement. "We are carefully reviewing the ‌decision and considering all available options."

Temu was fined €200 million ($232 million) under Europe's DSA in May, also for failing to prevent the sales of illegal products on its platform. The EU previously found that up to 65 percent of cosmetics, 63 percent of food supplements and 60 percent of personal protection equipment (like hard hats and steel-toe boots) on major platforms like Shein, Temu and AliExpress were non-compliant.