The European Commission has fined AliExpress €550 million (about $629 million) for breaking the EU's Digital Services Act, a set of rules that governs how large online platforms operate in Europe. It is the largest fine ever issued under this rulebook. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen announced the decision, which is about AliExpress failing to stop illegal, unsafe, and counterfeit products from reaching European shoppers. The Verge

The Commission found two main problems. First, AliExpress did not assign enough staff to check whether products listed on its site were safe and legal. It is like a restaurant with too few health inspectors: the kitchen keeps running, but nobody is verifying that the food is safe to eat. Second, the company left unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics on its site for weeks after they were flagged, letting people keep buying things already known to be risky. The Commission also said AliExpress underestimated how likely it was that illegal products would spread on its platform. The Verge

AliExpress has until October 20, 2026, to fix these issues or face more fines. Under the Digital Services Act, companies can be fined up to 6% of their total worldwide yearly revenue, not just what they make in Europe. The €550 million amount reflects how serious and how long-lasting the Commission found the violations to be. The Verge

The process started back in March 2024, when the Commission opened a formal investigation into AliExpress over possibly illegal products. Reuters By June 2025, the EU accepted promises from AliExpress to do a better job catching illegal products, but the investigation continued. Reuters In March 2026, AliExpress executives spoke to European lawmakers and said the company was improving its controls. Reuters The promises and the testimony were not enough to close the case.

The AliExpress fine comes about two months after the Commission fined a similar Chinese shopping platform, Temu, more than $230 million for breaking the same rules in May. The Verge Both cases come down to the same problem: online marketplaces that let thousands of outside sellers list products without enough checking, removing dangerous items quickly enough, or hiring enough staff to follow the rules.

The Digital Services Act lets the Commission regulate Very Large Online Platforms directly. These are platforms with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU, and the rules cover not just content moderation but also product safety, how recommendation algorithms work, and access to data for outside researchers. The finding about AliExpress having too few staff matters because the Commission is treating the number of people a company assigns to safety as something it can measure and enforce, not just a private business choice. The message is that a company cannot promise to follow the rules on paper while not giving its teams the resources to actually do the work.

The weeks-long delay in removing unsafe toys and cosmetics is the second problem the Commission called out. Under the Digital Services Act, platforms are expected to act quickly once illegal products are identified. Letting known-dangerous items stay available for weeks crossed a line the Commission has now put a price tag on.

The broader context is that the Commission has now handed two of its biggest Digital Services Act fines to Chinese-owned shopping platforms within three months. That fits the purpose of the law, which was designed to let the EU go after large platforms whose global size and cross-border operations used to make it hard for any single European country to act effectively. Because fines are based on global revenue rather than just European sales, the penalties scale up for bigger companies.

AliExpress now has three months, until October 20, to show real changes to how it staffs, detects, and removes unsafe products. Whether those changes satisfy the Commission will decide whether the €550 million is a one-time penalty or the start of a recurring cost.