ALBAWABA - The European Union has landed a hefty fine on retail and e-commerce platform AliExpress, citing that the platform allowed the sale of illegal products including unsafe toys and cosmetics.
The main grief the EU has with AliExpress is that it didn’t do enough to halt the sales of the banned items, with illegal goods and counterfeits remaining online on the sites for weeks after being detected.
The products were found to not adhere to the EU’s strict standards during investigations launched in March 2024,
"Risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action," EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.
The $630 million figure is the largest ever fine made by the EU, in December of last year, Elon Musk’s X was fined $137 million and Temu was slapped with a $200 million fine.
With the EU seemingly out for blood of tech giants, AliExpress said the fine was “disproportionate” and "does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made".
However, according to the EU, the fine's amount considers the nature of the violations, the impact on Europeans and the duration of the infringements; with the EU adding that AliExpress "overestimated the effectiveness of its system in detecting and removing illegal products".
AliExpress remains the biggest Chinese e-commerce platform in Europe with 193 million users, followed by Shein (156 million) and Temu (130 million users). One European noted that the EU is AliExpress’s biggest market.
