EU accepts AliExpress’s commitment to hunt for illegal products, but the company isn’t out of the woods yet

Chinese online retailer AliExpress has promised the European Commission that it will address concerns over illegal products and adult material.

In March 2024, the European Commission launched a formal investigation against AliExpress for potentially violating the Digital Services Act (DSA).

The Commission said the investigation would focus on whether AliExpress failed to enforce its own terms of service, which prohibit products posing risks to consumers’ health, such as fake medicines, food, and dietary supplements.

The inquiry would also look into whether AliExpress was involved in any violations that allowed minors to view pornographic material and other illegal content.

On Wednesday, the European Commission said it has accepted a series of wide-ranging commitments offered by AliExpress to settle a number of concerns, including the platform’s transparency on advertising and recommender systems, the traceability of traders in AliExpress’s services, and access to public data for researchers.

The Chinese retailer could still face a fine because the European Commission found AliExpress infringing its obligation to assess and mitigate risks related to disseminating illegal products and not enforcing its penalties against traders that post illegal content.

“We have been able to take concrete steps to ensure a high level of safety for EU citizens while maintaining a level playing field for platforms and traders in the EU market. We welcome AliExpress’s commitments towards becoming safer for users, fairer for legitimate traders, and a better online platform for all,” Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, said in a response.

AliExpress now has the opportunity to respond to the European Commission’s preliminary findings.

“We have proactively engaged and closely collaborated with the European Commission throughout this process from the outset, and we will continue to do so. We are confident that a positive and compliant result will be achieved through continuing our mutual dialogue with the Commission to address any remaining concerns,” an AliExpress spokesperson said in a statement to media outlets.