The Chinese online giant Aliexpress must do more to protect consumers from illegal products of the products, said the European Commission on Wednesday with a temporary discovery that could open the way for heavy fines.While noting some progress, “the Commission has detected preliminary aliexpress in the violation of its obligation to evaluate and mitigate the risks relating to the spread of illegal products” pursuant to EU Digital Services Act.
The EU opened a formal investigation in March 2024 in Aliexpress, which is owned by Alibaba, for multiple suspicious violations of the DSA rules to counter the spread of illegal goods and online content.
The preliminary results of the Commission have concluded that “Aliexpress cannot apply appropriately its penalty policy regarding the traders who repeatedly publish illegal content”.He also highlighted “systemic failures” in the Aliexpress moderation systems that expose it to “manipulation by harmful traders” and said that the company’s risk assessments underestimated the dangers related to illegal products.
These results have been “in violation of the obligations” that DSA imposes on very large platforms – such as Aliexpress, Facebook and Instagram – with over 45 million monthly European users, said the commission.
Aliexpress now has the right to examine the Commission’s results and respond in writing.
If Aliexpress is confirmed in order not to comply with the DSA, the Commission could impose a fine of up to six percent of the company’s global turnover.
The EU has developed a powerful arsenal to regulate great technology with the Milestone DSA and a law on her sister, the Digital Markets Act, which affects web giants with rigorous curbs, obligations and supervision on how they do business.
He took measures against Aliexpress after identifying the probable failures to prevent the sale of false medicines, prevent minors from seeing pornography, stopping affiliated influencers who push illegal products and other issues, including access to data for researchers.
In his statement on Wednesday, the Commission said that Aliexpress had adopted a series of legally binding measures to remedy these concerns.
The steps included improvements to its systems to detect illegal products such as medicines and pornographic material, in particular the goods spread through hidden connections and affiliation programs.
The Commission also stated that Aliexpress faced concerns regarding the reporting of illegal products, the management of internal complaints, the transparency of the advertisements, the traceability of traders and access to data research.
EC/UB/JS
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