Key Points
- The EU accepted promises from AliExpress to stop the sale of illegal and pornographic products.
- The deal follows a formal EU investigation that could have resulted in a large fine.
- AliExpress could still be fined because the EU says it didn’t do enough to punish bad sellers.
- The company will enhance its monitoring, increase ad transparency, and simplify trader tracking.
The European Commission has struck a deal with the online marketplace AliExpress over concerns that the platform was allowing the sale of illegal products and pornography. The EU had launched an investigation in March, and the company was facing the threat of a hefty fine.
On Wednesday, the Commission announced that it had accepted a series of promises from AliExpress and made them legally binding. AliExpress has now committed to getting better at monitoring and detecting illegal items, like fake medicines, unapproved food supplements, and adult material. The company also promised to be more transparent about its advertising and make it easier to trace who is selling goods on its platform.
But AliExpress isn’t completely in the clear yet. The Commission stated that the company still faces a potential fine because it believes AliExpress didn’t take the problem seriously enough and failed to discipline sellers who broke the rules properly. AliExpress will have a chance to respond to these findings.
In a statement, AliExpress said it has been working closely with the Commission from the beginning. “We are confident that a positive and compliant result will be achieved through continuing our mutual dialogue with the Commission to address any remaining concerns,” the company said.
