The European Commission has forced Aliexpress to control the sale of illegal products such as medicines, food supplements or adult material; warn users when there are suspicious products or have a transparent advertising mechanism. In short, Brussels forces the subsidiary of the Chinese giant of electronic commerce, Alibaba, to comply with after opening an investigation in which he indicated the possible infractions he was committing and negotiating the solution, according to the commission itself. This decision does not lead, for now, an economic sanction.
Together with this measure, that “Aliexpress does not take into account the limited resources dedicated to its moderation systems to avoid the dissemination of illegal products, underestimating that risk.” Other findings were that “the proactive systems for moderation of Aliexpress content had systemic failures, which allowed manipulation by malicious merchants.” This part of this Wednesday’s resolution is preliminary.
In March 2014, the commission technicians opened an investigation into Aliexpress after finding indications that it did not comply with the norm that forces the great actors of markets and digital services to have additional obligations to those of the rest. Digital platforms such as Aliexpress, X, Amazon and others than others because the damage they can cause in vulnerable groups (minors, minorities …) is larger. Hence, when there have been signs of infraction, a process is quickly opened in which it is the company that has to demonstrate that it is not so and must offer adaptation commitments to the DSA.
From there the negotiating process that has ended this Wednesday was opened, when “the Commission has accepted and turned into binding commitments offered by Aliexpress to solve a series of problems, such as the transparency of the advertising platform and the recommendation systems,” explains the commission in the statement in which the measure makes public.
The list of agreed commitments concerns that surveillance on illegal products that can be sold on the platform, “also disseminated through hidden links […] and that could affect the health of the users and the well -being of the minors, ”he explains. Aliexpress has committed to having an advertising system and transparent products recommendation since it is possible to draw the connection between the final buyer and the initial seller of an article. Finally, Brussels force for the Asian digital giant to access the researchers.
This last part, the access of the investigators to the data, is a point that appears in many of the decisions of the Commission when compromise solutions are reached and usually underlines its lack in the opening of the investigations. For Brussels this aspect is important because it allows civil society to control what happens in these electronic giants.
Although the solution is agreed and does not entail sanction, Aliexpress now has the obligation to fulfill the commitments achieved, since Brussels in their resolution makes them forced.
