New setback for Aliexpress. Brussels has made official the sanction exceeding 500 million euros to the Chinese giant for selling products dangerous to citizens' health. The European Commission has announced a fine of 550 million euros for not complying with the community's Digital Services Act and also for not trying to prevent the sale of banned products in the European Union.
The European Commission has indicated that the Chinese platform inadequately evaluated how its recommendation and advertising system has aggravated the dissemination of illegal products. This dissemination, according to Brussels, has been promoted to consumers.
It is true that, as indicated by the European community executive, Aliexpress tried to establish a moderation system for illegal items circulating on its platform, but that system has not obtained the expected results. The Asian company now has a deadline ending on October 20 to present an action plan to Brussels to put an effective end to the situation. This strategy, according to the European body, must include measures to avoid the identified risks that the European Commission will evaluate in one month. If Aliexpress does not comply with the requirements demanded by the European Union, it will face periodic sanctions and fines.
According to the European Commission in the document, counterfeit products, unsafe toys for children, and dangerous cosmetics are sold on Aliexpress, and despite their identification, these were not removed. The EC points out that the platform did not present firm sanctions against sellers who carried out these practices and that despite the admonition, the sellers' accounts remained active.
Within the cosmetics business segment, Aliexpress sells counterfeit products and imitations. This is the case of the popular Elf.beauty brand, very popular in the United States and which has numerous products on Aliexpress, and other products that use packaging and an image similar to other brands, such as the following concealer, which is reminiscent of a flagship product of the Maybelline makeup brand or the cheek tint that is reminiscent of Benefit.
In 2024, the Seoul government published a list of products being sold through Shein, Temu, and Aliexpress with toxic substances and dangerous bacteria. That investigation analyzed various items sold on these popular e-commerce platforms, revealing results of products that compromised consumer safety. In lipsticks, for example, the presence of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus was detected in items from AliExpress and Shein. In addition, several makeup products, such as makeup foundations from Shein and AliExpress, had a significantly lower volume of content than indicated on the packaging, with percentages ranging between 77% and 83%.