AliExpress is suspected of selling illegal products, including fake medicines. The European Commission announced this Monday the opening of an investigation targeting the Chinese online sales site. The Brussels executive explained that it had sent this subsidiary of the Chinese giant Alibaba a formal request for information. This must quickly detail the measures taken to protect consumers in accordance with the new European legislation on digital services (DSA) which came into force at the end of August.
Brussels had already opened three investigations in October targeting the social networks TikTok, , images and violent words, after the Hamas attacks against Israel. The investigation announced Monday is the first targeting e-commerce under the DSA regulation.
“Potentially fatal” products
This regulation on digital services “does not only concern hate speech and disinformation (…), it also aims to guarantee the withdrawal of illegal or dangerous products sold in the EU via online commerce platforms”, declared the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. He warned of “the growing number of fake medicines and potentially deadly pharmaceuticals being sold online”.
The request for information sent to AliExpress does not currently constitute an indictment. But this is the first step in a procedure which can lead to heavy financial sanctions in the event of proven and prolonged infringements of the regulations. In extreme cases, fines can reach 6% of the group’s global turnover.
Stricter rules
AliExpress must provide the information requested by the Commission no later than November 27, 2023. “Based on the evaluation of the responses, the Commission will determine the next steps,” it said in a press release. Since the end of August, the DSA has imposed stricter rules on 19 very large internet players, including X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, as well as online sales giants Amazon and Alibaba.
These rules include the obligation to act “promptly” to remove any illicit content or to make access to it impossible as soon as the platform becomes aware of it. Online sales sites must also verify the identity of sellers before authorizing them on their platform and block repeat fraudsters.
Falsely labeled injection pens
The illegal sale of medicines online, including counterfeit products or fake medicinal substances, has increased in recent years in the European Union, according to a report published by Europol and the EU Intellectual Property Office.
The majority of counterfeit pharmaceuticals are now distributed online and counterfeit pharmaceutical products are widely publicized on social media, according to this report covering the year 2022. European health authorities have, for example, alerted pharmacists at the end of October about the circulation of injector pens falsely labeled as containing Ozempic, a treatment for diabetes misused for weight loss purposes.