EU opens formal proceedings against AliExpress under DSA

The EU has opened formal proceedings to assess whether AliExpress may have breached the Digital Services Act 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. The commission will look at whether there was a lack of enforcement of AliExpress’ own terms of service, which prohibit certain products that pose a risk for consumers’ health, such as fake medicines. The probe will also focus on whether there were violations of the DSA that allowed minors to access pornographic material, which the commission said consumers can still find on the platform.