The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether AliExpress may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). According to the official announcement, the assessment is in areas linked to the management and mitigation of risks, to content moderation and the internal complaint handling mechanism, to the transparency of advertising and recommender systems, to the traceability of traders and to data access for researchers.

On the basis of the preliminary investigation conducted so far, including the analysis of the risk assessment report sent by AliExpress in August 2023, the information published in its Transparency report and its replies to the Commission's formal requests for information (from 6 November 2023 and 18 January 2024), the Commission has decided to open formal proceedings against AliExpress under the Digital Services Act. Focus areas of the proceedings The compliance with the DSA obligations related to the assessment and mitigation of the systemic risks of dissemination of illegal content, as well as actual or foreseeable negative effects for consumer protection;  The compliance with the DSA obligation to allow all users, including those who are not registered, to notify illegal content and to receive confirmation of the receipt of the notice;  The compliance with the DSA obligation to provide an effective internal complaint-handling system;  The compliance with the DSA obligation to gather and assess the reliability and completeness of the information requested from traders using AliExpress including in relation to traders within the “AliExpress Affiliate Program”, in line with the traceability of traders' provision;    The compliance with the DSA obligation to provide transparency on the main parameters used in AliExpress' recommender systems and to provide at least one option of recommender system not based on profiling;  The compliance with the DSA obligation to provide a searchable and reliable repository for advertisements presented on AliExpress;    The compliance with the DSA obligation to give researchers access to AliExpress' publicly accessible data as mandated by Article 40 of the DSA. According to the announcement, if proven, these failures would constitute infringements of Articles 16, 20, 26, 27, 30, 34, 35, 38, 39 and 40 of the DSA.

The European Commission would then carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. The opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge the outcome. Background AliExpress was designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) on 25 April 2023 under the EU's Digital Services Act, following its declaration of having 104.3 million monthly active users in the EU.

As a VLOP, four months from its designation, AliExpress had to start complying with a series of obligations set out in the DSA. Furthermore, this was the European Commision's third formal investigation of VLOPs under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Social media platforms X and TikTok are the two other very large online platforms which are currently under formal DSA investigation.

The social media platforms have been in investigation since December and February, respectively. .