AliExpress has been slapped with a €550 million (about $629 million) fine for violating Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA) by failing to prevent the sale of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products on its platform. The European Commission ruled that the e-commerce giant didn't take effective measures to curb the spread of dodgy goods, citing "insufficient staff" allocated to product verification and a failure to remove unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics for "multiple weeks" after detection.

"The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online - it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in the announcement, adding with a sigh, "Scale is not an excuse."

This penalty is the largest ever imposed under the DSA rulebook, surpassing the $230 million fine given to rival Chinese retailer Temu in May for similar infractions. AliExpress now has until October 20, 2026 to clean up its act, or risk facing additional periodic fines that will make this one look like a bargain.