EU executive probes AliExpress over unsafe products, child protection

The European Commission on Thursday opened an investigation into AliExpress over possible breaches of European Union rules on unsafe products and child protection, among other concerns.

The commission is investigating whether the Chinese-owned online marketplace is failing to adequately manage the risk of dangerous goods being sold on its platform, such as fake medicines and food.

The EU executive is also looking into the possibility that AliExpress isn't doing enough to prevent children from accessing pornographic material, a commission press release said on Thursday.

The probe concerns potential breaches of the Digital Services Act (DSA), a law governing large online platforms. The DSA requires large platforms to manage various risks, including the risk of illegal content being spread and the risk of harm to consumers, particularly minors.

If AliExpress is ultimately found to have breached the DSA's risk mitigation rules, it could face fines as high as 6% of its global annual revenue.

The investigation will also examine whether AliExpress lacks "effective measures to prevent intentional manipulation" through "hidden links."

Also under the microscope will be to what extent AliExpress makes it possible for visitors to its website to report illegal content and make complaints, and to disable personalized recommendations.

The transparency of the platform's algorithms is also under scrutiny, as is whether AliExpress looks closely enough into traders on its platform.

While some of the DSA's rules apply to all platforms, the more onerous risk-mitigation rules apply to those with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. The commission listed AliExpress as one such platform in April 2023.