AliExpress Hit With Record $625 Million Fine After Failing To Make EU-Ordered Fixes (arstechnica.com) 89
The European Commission has fined AliExpress more than $625 million, the largest penalty yet under the Digital Services Act, after finding that the marketplace failed to "diligently assess and mitigate risks relating to the sale of illegal, unsafe, or counterfeit products on its e-commerce platform." EU officials said flagged products repeatedly reappeared, sellers could evade safeguards, and AliExpress's recommendation and ad systems helped amplify dangerous goods. Ars Technica reports: For shady sellers, the risks of detection appeared low. The e-commerce site's mandatory brand authorization system was also ineffective and understaffed, the EC found, and AliExpress did not penalize traders for selling illegal products as its policy claims it would. Making things worse, AliExpress "inadequately assessed how its recommender and advertising systems exacerbate the spread of illegal products," the EC said. So rather than remove illegal products, AliExpress was recommending them to consumers and helping to maximize exposure. Talking to the press, the European Union's tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, noted that one in five Europeans shop monthly at retail sites like AliExpress, Temu, and Shein.
AliExpress also relied on a single quantitative metric to gauge how effectively its systems were working to weed out illegal products. And that metric did not properly measure the extent of the harm. EC testing found that "a high volume of illegal products" -- including unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics -- "continued to circulate despite AliExpress' moderation efforts." In June 2025, AliExpress was ordered to bring its platform into compliance with the DSA but failed to make the necessary changes, the EC said. The fine was calculated to be proportionate to the nature of the violations, which the EC considered "particularly serious infringements," and to penalize AliExpress's delayed interventions to mitigate flagged risks.
[...] AliExpress told Ars it was "surprised" by the "disproportionate" fine. AliExpress said it plans to appeal the decision, claiming the EC ignored its "sound risk management framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made." The massive online retailer noted that its EU market is substantially smaller than its China market and said that it invests "substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection" and "has been and continues to be committed to meeting our obligations to consumers."
AliExpress also relied on a single quantitative metric to gauge how effectively its systems were working to weed out illegal products. And that metric did not properly measure the extent of the harm. EC testing found that "a high volume of illegal products" -- including unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics -- "continued to circulate despite AliExpress' moderation efforts." In June 2025, AliExpress was ordered to bring its platform into compliance with the DSA but failed to make the necessary changes, the EC said. The fine was calculated to be proportionate to the nature of the violations, which the EC considered "particularly serious infringements," and to penalize AliExpress's delayed interventions to mitigate flagged risks.
[...] AliExpress told Ars it was "surprised" by the "disproportionate" fine. AliExpress said it plans to appeal the decision, claiming the EC ignored its "sound risk management framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made." The massive online retailer noted that its EU market is substantially smaller than its China market and said that it invests "substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection" and "has been and continues to be committed to meeting our obligations to consumers."
Amazon (Score:2, Interesting)
Amazon sweating right about now, AliExpress tried the old "its not us but our partner" Amazon S230 excuse, seems like that doesn't work with the EU, your website, your shit, deal with it
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There is a lot of shady "somebody else's problem" to deal with lately. There is zero reason for a Bitcoin ATM to exist at a supermarket or laundromat. 99.9% of their profit comes from enabling fraud.
Re: Amazon (Score:3)
Modern "innovation" is scams all the way down. From B. S. crypto to taxis disguised as "ride sharing" with no employees, only gig contract workers. Some countries are calling the scams out, while the grift thrives in most places.
Re:Amazon (Score:5, Insightful)
AliExpress and Amazon are both cesspools, where thousands of sellers sell identical or nearly identical products under different brand names with different markup. And most of the products are trash.
Case in point, I bought a bunch of metric bolts and nuts at Amazon, and they wouldn't screw onto each other. They would get to some random point and the nuts would stop turning. Sometimes it was half an inch up, sometimes it was two inches up, but the failure rate was something like 40% and I budgeted for 20%. I ended up buying a tap and die set and rethreading all the bolts. It actually would have been cheaper to buy the bolts in 5-packs from Lowe's. (On the other hand, if it happens again, I don't have to buy the tap and die set again, so I guess that's a "win".)
I've reached a point where about one in five Amazon products results in a return, because the quality is so poor, the descriptions are inadequate, etc. I buy enough stuff that they tolerate my return rate, but it's a huge hassle that I wish I didn't have to deal with. If I want a high risk of fixer-upper hardware, I'd rather buy from AliExpress for half the price and wait a week. :-/
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What the hell happened?
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Amazon's search function is pretty much useless and has been for a while. The best way to find the specific product you're looking for on Amazon is to search on Google (and that's not exactly great, it just sucks less than Amazon's search).
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I hate it. I think their policy must be to always return as many results as possible, even if they don't have whatever is being searched. I searched Walmart for a U7 Lite and got exactly one result. It was even the same seller that had it on Amazon, but I didn't get charged shipping.
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The Amazon seller was probably going to buy it from Walmart and mark it up.
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Nice one!
I was talking to a mechanic friend once, and he said that what they usually did when they needed parts was to go to NAPA or Autozone, buy the part, and then sell it for double the price. Keep that in mind if you need to get your car serviced. You can usually get the part yourself and just have them install it. It'll save you some, though most of the cost is labor.
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My problem with Amazon lately has been more about shipping, and how at least a third of the things I order get lost or show up late.
Heh. You reminded me that something I ordered got mis-delivered to some random unknown house, and since they don't provide delivery coordinates, there's no way to know where. So thanks for reminding me that I needed to reorder and reach out to Amazon Custom Service for a refund on that. :-)
I was looking for a new AP. A specific model from a specific brand. Amazon gave me a massive list of other crap, and the one seller who had what I was looking for wanted $20+ for 5-day shipping. Walmart, of all places, only showed me what I searched for, was the cheapest option, and I got it a day earlier than they said.
This matches with my experience. Amazon has a wider selection than Walmart, but often slightly worse prices.
And yeah, Amazon's search engine is absolute trash, designed to promote what will make Amazon the most money o
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AliExpress and Amazon are both cesspools
Yes, and my personal impression is that lately, the EU goes after Chinese direct importers much more than they go after imports facilitated via Amazon. And not for good reason, but just because of a generic "China bad" attitude. If the same strict regulations were applied to every company, then not only Amazon, but also Otto and other online retailers that facilitate some sort of "marketplace" would have to pay huge fines.
Re: Amazon (Score:4, Informative)
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Sorry which one is which in the story you're describing? Both Amazon and Aliexpress goods overwhelmingly come in fast shipments. You can watch their tracking info from China. You can't clear customs one day in China and then hit customs in the EU the day after via container ship, and when you buy Chinese items that are not locally warehoused that's exactly what you get.
You may be thinking of Alibaba? That is actually a place where you do have a tendency to order things more like a container load.
Re:Amazon (Score:4, Interesting)
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Case in point, I bought a bunch of metric bolts and nuts at Amazon, and they wouldn't screw onto each other. They would get to some random point and the nuts would stop turning. Sometimes it was half an inch up,
There's your problem!
But seriously, this doesn't generally match my experience. I haven't bought nuts and bolts there because they're cheaply and readily available locally, though China is obviously more than capable of making screws at scale. So much consumer electronics is made there, they can cer
Re:Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:5, Informative)
They do business in the EU. If you do business in a country, you are subject to their rules and regulations.
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They won't pay, and nobody will be able to make them.
Re:Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:5, Insightful)
What is it with the legal fan-fiction about EU here in Slashdot where people think European laws are optionals. When US fines an EU company you never see these remarks.
Ali has subsidiaries in Europe, billions in revenue, data centers. How do you exactly see that play out that they decide not to pay a fine? They will just decide to give up on billions to save millions? And then nobody that works for Ali can enter Europe again? Is that your legal strategy?
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There was an extended period of time that executives for DeBeers (the diamond company) couldn't enter the US without being arrested for anti-trust violations. It's not an idle threat.
There's also the option of just refusing to allow any goods to enter the EU from Ali, period.
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Can DeBeers enter now?
There was some kind of settlement a few years back.
Can't say I celebrated it either.
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> There's also the option of just refusing to allow any goods to enter the EU from Ali, period.
This is no additional option. The ban of doing business in the EU (when they do not pay the fine) is exactly that option.
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The only crime the EU can investigate on its own (through the European Public Prosecutor's Office) is fraud/corruption related to EU money; not paying a fine isn't of this legal nature. What the EC can do about not paying the fine is seizing corporate assets and prohibiting the company from doing business with the EU.
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Re:Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:4, Interesting)
You're right, but when was the last time the US fined an EU company? VW, for the diesel thing, was the last one I remember.
Are courts open today? If so, probably today. Most recent one to hit the news was Bosch, that last month got a 36M dollar fine.
In this size class, in the past few years you had large fines for Credit Suisse, SAP, Gunvor Group, Trafigura, Ericsson, UBS.
Of course the US likes to just fine entire continents and countries at once using illegal tariffs through executive orders. But that's not quite the same thing as no court is involved there.
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You know, SAP being fined in Europe got a story here. Why wasn't there one about their US fine for bribery? Why does it seem like we only hear about the EU fines? I had to go back to 2015 to find anything about SAP getting in trouble with the US government, but they got busted under FINRA just last year. You'd think maybe a US-centric bias, but EU company fined in US should be at le
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Yeah that's fair. US companies are more tech heavy so I guess make more sense for Slashdot. So I guess people would not have the ability to make the same comments the other way around. I doubt you would see them though. I think most commenters understand that Deutsche bank isn't going to leave the US over some fine of 1% of their income in the US. Yet many fully expect Apple or Google to do contempt of court, rack up criminal charges and lose their asset in the EU over some 1% fine of their EU income.
Re: Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:2)
BNP Paribas, a large French Bank, paid a $8.9 billion fine in 2014. Not a small thing, even for a world class bank.
https://www.justice.gov/archiv... [justice.gov]
Re:Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:4, Interesting)
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What is it with the legal fan-fiction about EU here in Slashdot where people think European laws are optionals.
In America the laws literally are optional for the rich and powerful. If you do get convicted you simply purchase a pardon for $1 million.
It's a mental illness.
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Trump can only pardon Federal crime. So you can't just commit a state crime, it's got to be bigger or done across state-lines.
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Unless the governor of that state is a Trump puppet. I guarantee that if Trump told Greg Abbott to pardon someone in Texas, he'd jump (roll) at the opportunity.
Real example: Tina Peters.
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But they're collecting payment via banks in the EU, who will not hesitate to tell those banks to refuse all transactions from Ali if they feel the need to.
Re: Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:4, Informative)
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They are also fully incorporated multi-nationals with offices in Amsterdam and Germany.
Literally no company that is worthy discussing on Slashdot is small enough that it doesn't have a legal registered footprint in multiple countries around the world. Alibaba hasn't been a Chinese international for a really long time. They were a multinational before their launch on the NYSE in 2014. They have had an official legal footprint since at least 2016 when they registered Alibaba B.V. headquartered in Amsterdam. T
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Let's imagine Ali Express has no local representation in the EU and thus a fine cannot be enforced. They can then choose to not pay. And the EU can choose to not allow any merchandise shipped from Ali Express into the EU. That's the largest single market on the planet they'd be kissing goodbye. Somehow, I figure they care.
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And they're processing transactions through EU banks. Don't want to follow EU law? Then you don't get to collect EU money. Half a dozen phone calls, and Ali isn't doing business in the EU at all.
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I really doubt that it's the largest single market. I suspect that's China. The US and India are probably up there in the running too.
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I have no particular knowledge of global markets or which metrics are being used, but it's what I've heard repeated for a very long time. Perhaps it's wrong,or perhaps it changed when the UK left and everyone's just parroting the old reality. But either way, it's a huge market.
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If they're shipping physical product, that product goes through Customs at the EU border. Or it doesn't go through, as the case may be.
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The EU can block imports, freeze EUbased assets, shut down EU payment flows, or ban executives from entering — all true. But they cannot compel a foreign sovereign state to enforce their judgment, because the EU does not have sovereign immunity over China. They can only enforce within their own borders.
When the US fines an EU company, it’s the US government acting as a sovereign state against a foreign private entity — and the EU company has no sovereign immunity to hide behind. They eithe
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You are violating Hume's law. Stupid socialist.
No one is forced to shop on Ali Express. Take some personal responsibility.
Re: Does EU has any authority over it? (Score:2)
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EU can easily have their ISPs block the Ali Express website.
It is slightly harder but still possible to block all shipping from China.
They could still sell digital content via another web site. But that would still be a miniscule portion of their profits.
If Ali Express wants to do business in Europe they have to obey the laws of Europe or have their business be blocked both online and via shipping.
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The web block is the hardest and most ineffective option. They rather do two things:
1) Block imports. They already do this for any dangerous goods (like electronics without the required certifications). This means your order will be destroyed in the customs procedure. If you want money back, you have to ask Aliexpress, not the government.
2) Block electronic payments. They just ask the banks to not let the payments go through.
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AliExpress is a subsidiary of Alibaba. Alibaba isn't "Chinese", it's a multinational including Alibaba B.V. headquartered in Amsterdam, and Alibaba GmbH headquartered in Munich.
It never ceases to amaze me that with every story about any fine of any company people here still don't understand what a multi-national company is and why courts have jurisdictions over them.
Not surprising AE basically brushed off the EU (Score:3)
Those products are a significant percentage of its business, they basically took the street vendors and gave them a global marketplace. You no longer need to go to Asia to get a high quality counterfeit football jersey or shoddy electrical appliance. It's even easier for the vendor, get cutoff and open under a new name. No new storefront to find, no goods to mov or hide from spot checks when the government decides to 'crack down' due to pressure from manufacturers. The quality varies greatly depending on product category, the bolts, screws, random hardware to use in 3D printed stuff, screen protectors, yard flags etc. were all fine and a fraction of Amazon's cost from a reshipper.
Amazon's actions will be interesting because it seems pretty clear that some of the sellers are just drop shipping from the same sources in China and marking it up to cover Amazon's costs and shipping.
Re: Not surprising AE basically brushed off the EU (Score:2)
A huge percentage of what's on Amazon is clearly drop shipped from AliExpress, and most of the rest of it was sourced from AliBaba. I buy the same shit from China directly for a third to two thirds of the Amazon price.
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A huge percentage of what's on Amazon is clearly drop shipped from AliExpress, and most of the rest of it was sourced from AliBaba. I buy the same shit from China directly for a third to two thirds of the Amazon price.
I do the same unless I need it faster and the price delta is small enough.
Chinese flea markets (Score:3)
Buy things from Chinese flea markets, expect to get fleas.
Specifically... (Score:3)
Re: Specifically... (Score:3)
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Called standard by who? I guess we shouldn't call the Imperial units, though. But I've *never* heard them called "standard" before.
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Called standard by who? I guess we shouldn't call the Imperial units, though. But I've *never* heard them called "standard" before.
No, you misunderstand, those signs are for serious shit like when someone had a pronoun or there are minorities somewhere in the tri-county area. This government overreach is simply not important enough to warrant their attention.
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Called standard by who? I guess we shouldn't call the Imperial units, though. But I've *never* heard them called "standard" before.
What you've got to rememeber is that the Imperial system was first codified in 1824 in the Weights and Measures Act of 1824. This is some 50 years after their little rebellion. So it's accurate to say that the Americans are not even as advanced as the Imperial system.
The US uses US Customary Units and most of them are completely arbitrary.
The Imperial system was not just an attempt to standardise units for trade (I.E. someone couldn't shaft you by deciding to use a different gallon) it was also an ef
Re: Specifically... (Score:2)
My country's currency, the £, is the oldest currency in the world still in use. It's a thousand years older than the US $. It doesn't get more standard than that. Yet again, /. struggles because it's buggy shit.
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fuck off euro trash, get your own slashdot
He posts, unironically on a story about a European court fining a Chinese company.
Re: Specifically... (Score:2)
Way too small fine. (Score:2)
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The fine amounts to less than â1/$1 per order when smeared out over half a year. It's nothing compared to the yearly revenue. The fine should be 10x as large to make a difference.
It is a tiny amount that will be spread out amongst all of their customers in the region. A ten time bigger fine might cause noticeable price bumps.
What Will Urop Do Without AliExpress (Score:2)
Is this a huge win for Temu?
Does Europe have other options for cheap Chinese crap?
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Joom.com
But does Baba even care? (Score:2)
Henna Virkkunen (Score:2)
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If you can't compete, I guess just regulate and fine everyone else into oblivion.
Literally no one should be competing on selling illegal products that don't meet local regulations. Yes these companies should be pushed into oblivion. Right now at this very moment you can still find asbestos contaminated children's toys. Is that what you want people to compete for? Can't you just self harm in the comfort of your own house without advocating the rest of society follow your suicidal desires?
Just ordered from them (Score:2)
I just ordered 50 pairs of bicycle brake pads from them. Hopefully they will survive the fine :)
I have a good experience with AliExpress. Though I order only simple items which cannot be easily screwed up and which are rather easy to check for proper functionality. And only if the result price is at least 33% lower than what I can get locally. I spend a few thousands with them and only one item I received was defective: some bang-bang temperature regulator. I kind of expected that. I ordered 3 pieces and o