European Commission fines AliExpress €550 million under Digital Services Act
AliExpress just got hit with a €550 million fine from the European Commission for not stopping the sale of illegal stuff: think fake clothes, unsafe toys, and dodgy cosmetics.
It's the biggest penalty so far under the new Digital Services Act, which aims to keep shoppers safe online.
EU finds AliExpress lacked effective safeguards
Even though €550 million sounds huge, it's less than 1% of AliExpress's yearly revenue (€122 billion).
The EU found that AliExpress had weak controls: not enough staff, poor risk checks, and millions of violations slipping through.
Sellers were able to dodge safeguards, letting unsafe products stay up for weeks.
Despite two years of warnings, AliExpress didn't fix these issues.
As the EC's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, put it, "Scale is not an excuse."