The European Commission has initiated formal procedures to assess whether Chinese giant AliExpress may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to a press release from the Community Executive, cited by Agerpres.

Based on the preliminary investigation conducted to date, including the analysis of the risk assessment report submitted by AliExpress in August 2023, the information published in its transparency report, and its responses to the Commission’s official requests for information (dated November 6, 2023 and January 18). 2024), the Commission decided to initiate formal proceedings against AliExpress under the Digital Services Act.

The work will be focused on the following areas:

• complying with the obligations stipulated by the Legislative Act on Digital Services regarding the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks of the distribution of illegal content;

• actual or perceived negative consequences for consumer protection, including: failure to comply with AliExpress’s terms of service, which prohibit certain products that pose a risk to consumers’ health (such as counterfeit drugs and food, and dietary supplements), and , in particular minors (access to pornographic material), which the consumer can still find on the platform;

• lack of effective measures to prevent the spread of illegal content;

• lack of effective measures to prevent intentional manipulation of the online platform through so-called “hidden links”;

• lack of effective measures to prevent risks associated with features such as influencers promoting illegal or harmful products through the AliExpress “Partner Program”.

AliExpress will be the subject of an “in-depth investigation” in the EU

In addition, compliance with ASD’s obligation to allow all users, including unregistered users, to report illegal content and receive confirmation of notification, compliance with obligations under the Digital Services Act to ensure an effective internal system for handling complaints and compliance of the Digital Services Act to collect and evaluate the reliability and completeness of information requested by sellers using AliExpress, including sellers in the “AliExpress Partner Program”, in accordance with the tracking of merchant locations.

In addition, complying with the obligations under the Digital Services Act to provide transparency about the main parameters used in AliExpress’s recommendation systems and to offer at least one recommendation system option that is not based on the creation of profiles, complying with the obligations under the Digital Act on services to provide a reliable, searchable data registry for advertising messages presented on AliExpress, and to comply with obligations under the Digital Services Act to provide researchers with access to public AliExpress data.

In the press release, the commission promises that the priority will be an in-depth investigation of the suspicions against the Chinese company.