Image reproduced from Yahoo! News

The European Union stated on June 18 that AliExpress, the Chinese global e-commerce platform, must take additional steps to protect consumers from the influence of illegal product sales. In a preliminary conclusion reported by the European Commission, it was highlighted that AliExpress could face substantial fines due to a violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) regarding the assessment of risks and obligations regarding the circulation of illegal products.

Despite some progress made by AliExpress, the European Commission has preliminarily determined that the platform fails to comply with requirements to address illegal content dissemination. The Commission identified that AliExpress lacks adequate enforcement of punishment policies against repeat offenders who list illegal products. Furthermore, the EU noted systematic failures in the content review process of AliExpress that makes the platform susceptible to manipulation by malicious merchants.

AliExpress's self-assessment of risks has also underestimated the potential harm that illegal products may cause. These issues, according to the EU, violate the obligations imposed on major platforms under the DSA. Major platforms are defined as those with over 45 million users in Europe, including AliExpress, Facebook, and Instagram. If AliExpress is confirmed to have violated the DSA, the European Commission may impose fines of up to 6% of the company's global annual revenue.

Currently, AliExpress has initiated corrections; however, these measures are considered insufficient. The platform has the right to review the preliminary findings of the European Commission and respond in writing. The EU's actions against AliExpress stem from its failure to effectively curb the sale of counterfeit drugs, protect minors from adult content, and prevent influencers associated with the platform from promoting illegal products, along with issues involving data acquisition by researchers.

The European Commission stated that AliExpress has taken a series of legally binding steps to address these matters, such as improving its systems for identifying illegal products like counterfeit drugs and adult content, particularly those marketed through hidden links. Moreover, the EU noted improvements in areas such as illegal product labeling, internal complaint handling, advertising transparency, merchant traceability, and data access for researchers.