The European Union escalated a probe against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s e-commerce service AliExpress, accusing it of failing to tackle the spread of illegal products on its platform.
The EU’s executive arm on June 18 unveiled a detailed list of grievances against China-owned AliExpress, which had been under investigation since March 2024 under the bloc’s content moderation rulebook the Digital Services Act.
AliExpress doesn’t adequately moderate the goods sold on its website and fails to "appropriately enforce” its penalty policy against sellers who repeatedly post illegal content, the European Commission said in a statement. The commission’s preliminary findings put the platform at risk of a fine.
The commission also said AliExpress has committed to changes to systems for detecting and flagging illegal products – such as medicines and food supplements – tracing sellers and making its data more transparent. Alibaba is looking for new areas for growth after its core businesses fell victim to prolonged US-China tensions. Chairman Joe Tsai said last month that Asian companies can look for opportunities in Asia or Europe for expansion.
Under the DSA, online platforms with more than 45 million users in the EU can face fines of as much as 6% of their global yearly sales for failing to stamp out illicit products or harmful content. Besides AliExpress, other major platforms including Elon Musk’s X, Meta Platforms, e-commerce website Temu, social network TikTok and several pornography platforms are currently being investigated under the sweeping regulation. – Bloomberg
