Brussels Fines AliExpress €550 Million for Failing to Curb Unsafe and Counterfeit Goods, Its Largest Digital Services Act Penalty Yet

The European Commission has fined the Chinese online marketplace AliExpress €550 million for failing to stop the sale of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit goods to European shoppers — the largest penalty yet handed down under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). The platform, which serves around 193 million users across the bloc, said the fine was "disproportionate" and announced it would appeal.

Brussels concluded that AliExpress did not diligently assess and mitigate the risks flowing through its site. Investigators found that the company employed too few staff to check whether listed products were legal, that its recommendation and advertising algorithms actively promoted illegal items before they were taken down, and that its own monitoring indicators were weak and unreliable. The infringements ran at least until June 2025, when the Commission issued its preliminary findings, and the regulator has ordered AliExpress to put corrective measures in place.

The third strike under the Digital Services Act

The DSA, which came fully into force for the largest platforms in 2024, requires so-called "very large online platforms" to police the content and products they carry or face fines of up to 6 percent of global turnover. AliExpress is the third company to be penalised: social network X was fined €120 million and fellow Chinese retailer Temu €200 million before it. At €550 million, the AliExpress sanction dwarfs both and signals that Brussels is willing to escalate against marketplaces it believes are flooding Europe with unsafe products.

For Portuguese consumers, the ruling touches a fast-growing habit. Cheap parcels from Chinese platforms have become a fixture of household shopping, and the sector is already under scrutiny: on 1 July a new €3 EU handling fee began applying to every parcel from Shein and Temu. The AliExpress fine adds a consumer-safety dimension to what had mostly been a debate about customs and pricing, and it dovetails with a broader European drive to tighten product oversight — including Portugal's own food-safety regulator, which recently enlisted shoppers to flag mislabelled goods.

What This Means for Expats

• Product safety: The case is a reminder that electronics, toys, cosmetics and chargers bought through low-cost marketplaces may not meet EU safety standards. Look for CE marking and be wary of prices that seem too good to be true.
• Your rights are unchanged for now: The fine punishes AliExpress; it does not block the platform or alter what you can buy. But the ordered "corrective measures" may gradually change how listings are screened.
• Returns and recourse: Goods sold by third-party sellers on these sites can be hard to return or get refunded. EU consumer-protection rules still apply, but enforcement across borders is slow.
• A wider crackdown: With three fines now issued, expect Brussels to keep pressuring marketplaces. Rules on counterfeit and unsafe goods are only likely to tighten.

AliExpress will contest the penalty in the EU courts, a process that can take years. Whatever the outcome, the message from Brussels is clear: the era in which global platforms could treat European product-safety law as optional is coming to an end.