Content & Speech fines

The European Commission found that AliExpress fell short of its duty to diligently assess the risk of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products spreading on its marketplace, and failed to take effective measures to reduce that risk. It is the largest fine issued under the Digital Services Act so far.

Russia imposed a turnover-based fine on Google for repeatedly failing to delete content the government deemed banned, following an earlier 2021 penalty. Enforcement and collection were complicated after 2022, and the amounts are largely uncollected in practice.

The European Commission found that Temu failed to diligently identify, analyse and assess the systemic risk of illegal products being sold to EU consumers on its marketplace. Its 2024 risk assessment relied on general information about e-commerce rather than evidence specific to Temu, understated how often consumers would meet illegal items, and did not assess how recommender systems and influencer programmes could spread them.

The European Commission found three transparency breaches at X: the paid blue checkmark deceives users because anyone can buy verified status without being verified, the advertising repository is neither searchable nor complete, and researchers are blocked from the public data the DSA requires platforms to share.