AliExpress got a €550M EU fine — the DSA's first big test landed on Alibaba

AliExpress, Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform serving European consumers, became the first major test case for the EU's Digital Services Act when the European Commission fined it €550 million ($629M) in July 2026. The DSA, which took full effect in February 2024, requires very large online platforms to systematically assess and mitigate systemic risks including the sale of illegal goods, counterfeit products, and unsafe items.

The Commission found that AliExpress had failed to adequately assess and mitigate these risks in multiple categories. The platform was specifically cited for insufficient vetting of third-party sellers, allowing counterfeit and potentially dangerous products to reach European consumers. The fine was calculated based on AliExpress's global turnover, following the DSA's tiered penalty structure that caps fines at 6% of worldwide annual revenue.

AliExpress announced it would appeal the penalty, arguing that it had invested substantially in compliance infrastructure. China's Ministry of Commerce publicly opposed the fine, stating that China objected to the EU using platform regulation as a pretext to restrict Chinese e-commerce companies. The case set a precedent for DSA enforcement against non-European platforms and signaled that the EU would apply its rules equally to domestic and foreign tech companies.