The European Union (EU) has been enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) for online platform regulation since last month, and AliExpress is now under investigation for the third time.
On the 14th (local time), the EU Commission announced that it has launched an official investigation into the Chinese e-commerce company AliExpress on suspicion of multiple violations of the DSA regulations.
AliExpress is accused of not fully complying with terms that prohibit the sale of products threatening consumer health, such as counterfeit medicines and health supplements. It was also found lacking in measures to block minors' access to pornographic material.
The Commission believes that AliExpress effectively neglects the distribution of illegal and harmful products through its 'affiliate program,' where influencers promote and sell products from vendors on the platform.
Additionally, AliExpress is suspected of non-compliance with DSA regulations in areas such as establishing consumer dispute resolution systems and tracking and managing vendors, and is currently under investigation.
This is the third investigation since the EU began enforcing the DSA on the 17th of last month, following X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. It is the first investigation involving an e-commerce company. The EU enforces the DSA to prevent the online dissemination of content related to biased statements about specific races, genders, religions, terrorism, child sexual abuse, and more. If corrective measures are insufficient or clear violations of the DSA are found, fines of up to 6% of global revenue may be imposed.
Investigations into compliance with the EU's DSA regulations may expand to other platforms. On the same day, official requests for information regarding preventive measures against deepfakes (AI-generated manipulated content) were made to eight platforms: Microsoft (MS) Bing, Google Search, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and X. Additionally, LinkedIn, MS's networking platform, was asked to provide information on how users' personal data is utilized for targeted advertising.
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