European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda attend the plenary session at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tivat, Montenegro, on June 5. File Photo by Boris Pejovic/EPA
The European Commission announced a record fine against AliExpress for violating the Digital Services Act on Monday, calling on the platform to take action.
The commission has fined AliExpress, an online retail company based in China, for about $629 million for not properly assessing potentially illegal products being sold on the platform.
The European Commission said in a press release that AliExpress “fell short of its obligation under the DSA to diligently assess the risk of dissemination of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products through its services in multiple ways.”
“The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online,” Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security and democracy with the European Commission, said in a statement. “It is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act. Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online.”
AliExpress is accused of not having enough staff to review potentially illegal products, inadequately screening products that would be advertised on the platform, lacking metrics in its assessment of products and failing to mitigate systemic risks that had been identified.
The European Commission added that AliExpress’ system used to detect illegal products did not work properly.
“Many illegal products, from counterfeit products to unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics, circulated on the platform and, even if detected, remained online for multiple weeks,” the commission said.
AliExpress has been given until Oct. 20 to submit an action plan to the commission. The plan must include measures to remedy its shortcomings. If it fails to comply, it may be subject to further fines.
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Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo
