The European Commission has fined AliExpress a record €550m (£467m) for failing to adequately tackle the sale of illegal goods, including unsafe toys, fake clothing and dangerous cosmetics, on its platform. The ruling marks the largest penalty yet issued under the EU's Digital Services Act, which obliges large online platforms to properly assess and mitigate the risks posed by illegal or harmful content. Regulators said the Chinese-owned retailer, which has 193 million users across Europe, breached its legal duty to diligently police its marketplace, and AliExpress has said it will appeal.

A two-year investigation found AliExpress's detection systems "did not work properly", with many illegal listings going unflagged and others remaining online for weeks after being identified; the Commission also said penalties against offending traders were poorly enforced and compliance checks could be easily bypassed. Although the Digital Services Act permits fines of up to 6% of global turnover, the €550m penalty is well below that threshold given parent company Alibaba's €122bn annual revenue. AliExpress must pay the fine and submit a remediation plan by 20 October, and the case follows similar EU fines against Temu (€200m) and Elon Musk's X (€120m) for related violations.