The European Commission said on Thursday it had launched a formal investigation into AliExpress, the international e-commerce site run by Chinese tech giant Alibaba, over concerns about the spread of illegal content. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, launched an investigation into AliExpress under the landmark Digital Services Act, which came into effect this month.
The sweeping bill aims to curb anti-competitive behavior by tech giants and ensure their platforms are not filled with misinformation.
The Commission said the investigation focused on whether AliExpress violated the DSA "in areas related to management and risk reduction, content moderation and internal complaints handling mechanisms, transparency of advertising and recommendation systems, traceability of traders, and data access for researchers."
The European Commission will investigate whether AliExpress failed to enforce its own terms of service, which prohibit certain products that pose risks to consumers' health, such as counterfeit medicines.
The investigation will also focus on whether there were breaches that allowed minors to access pornographic material, which the commission said consumers could still find on the platform.
Other aspects of the investigation include how AliExpress recommends products to users and whether the e-commerce site complied with regulations that allow searches for ads served on the platform.
This is the third formal investigation launched by the European Commission under the DSA, following the investigation into TikTok and social media platform X.