E-Commerce Giant AliExpress Faces Probe in EU for Selling Fake Products

Rabat – The European Union announced the opening of an investigation into Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress on Monday to look into the measures the company is taking to protect consumers from fake products, especially fake medications.

Reports indicate that the European Commission has sent a formal request for information to the Chinese company as an initial step. The probe is part of a new EU law aiming to counter illegal goods and online content.

The request sent to AliExpress looks to collect data on how the company complies “with obligations related to risk assessments and mitigation measures to protect consumers online, in particular with regard to the dissemination of illegal products online such as fake medicines.”

The company has until November 27 to respond to the EU Commission’s request.

In recent years, the European Union introduced new laws and regulations specifically targeting big tech companies.

The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act are part of the new legislation that oversees the operations of big tech companies.

The DSA came into effect in August for 19 “very large” platforms, including AliExpress, Facebook, and Instagram, that have more than 45 million monthly European users.

The news comes amid the ongoing probe into Meta, the parent company of Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) which aims to investigate how social media platforms counter the spread of disinformation online.

Platforms failing to comply with new EU regulations can face fines of up to 6% of their overall turnover.

Commenting on the new arsenal of legislations, the EU’s top tech enforcer Thierry Breton said that the DSA is not only drafted to counter hate speech and disinformation online.

“It is also there to ensure removal of illegal or unsafe products sold in the EU via e-commerce platforms, including the growing number of fake and potentially life-threatening medicines and pharmaceuticals sold online,” Breton said.