20 October 2026 is the deadline the European Commission set for AliExpress to submit its DSA action plan, the set of measures the platform must propose after the EUR 550 million fine of 20 July 2026 for failing to assess and mitigate the risk of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products. For brand owners, the plan matters because the Commission singled out AliExpress’s “brand authorisation” system and its penalties against repeat sellers. This note explains what the plan must contain, what happens next and what rights holders should document now to measure whether anything changes.
Key takeaways
- Under Article 75 of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the plan must set out measures sufficient to end the infringement and include a commitment to an independent audit of their implementation.
- The European Board for Digital Services has one month from receipt to give its opinion; the Commission then has one month to decide whether the plan is sufficient and set an implementation period.
- The Commission found that the mandatory brand authorisation system was ineffective and understaffed, and that stores selling illegal products stayed active despite penalties.
- The plan itself does not have to be published; brand owners will mostly see its effects on the platform and in later risk assessment and audit reports.
- Your best leverage is a dated baseline of listings, takedown times and repeat sellers, built before the measures take effect.
What did the Commission find on counterfeits?
The Commission’s decision of 20 July 2026 (press release IP/26/1654) concluded that AliExpress, designated as a very large online platform, breached its obligations to assess and mitigate systemic risks. The fine covers conduct that ran at least until June 2025, when the Commission issued its preliminary findings. On counterfeits and illegal products, the Commission found that:
- the detection system did not work properly, and illegal products, from counterfeits to unsafe toys, remained online for weeks even after detection;
- the penalty policy for traders was not adequately enforced, so penalised stores kept selling;
- compliance checks could be bypassed by placing products in the wrong category;
- the mandatory brand authorisation system “proved ineffective and understaffed”, so traders published many products later removed as counterfeit;
- the risk assessment overestimated detection, ignored the ratio of moderators to workload and relied on a single quantitative indicator.
Commission testing also showed illegal products being recommended or advertised before removal. The Commission’s announcement quotes Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen saying that counterfeit clothing and unsafe products are “not an unavoidable cost of shopping online”.
What must AliExpress’s DSA action plan contain?
Article 75 DSA applies when a very large platform breaches the risk obligations in Articles 34 and 35. The platform must send the plan to the Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission and the Board, setting out “the necessary measures which are sufficient to terminate or remedy the infringement”. The plan must include a commitment to an independent audit of its implementation, naming the auditors, the methodology and the timing, and may include joining a code of conduct.
Article 35(1) lists the kinds of measures the plan is likely to draw on: adapting terms and conditions and their enforcement, content moderation processes and the speed of processing notices, testing recommender and advertising systems, reinforcing internal resources and cooperating with trusted flaggers, the entities designated under Article 22 whose notices platforms must handle with priority.
What happens after 20 October?
| Step | Rule | Indicative timing if the plan arrives on 20 October |
|---|---|---|
| Plan submitted | Deadline set in the decision (Art. 75(2)) | 20 October 2026 |
| Board opinion | Within one month of receipt (Art. 75(3)) | By around 20 November 2026 |
| Commission decision on sufficiency and implementation period | Within one month of the opinion (Art. 75(3)) | By around 20 December 2026 |
| Independent audit and monitoring | Audit report sent to the Commission once available (Art. 75(3)) | During the implementation period |
| Non-compliance | Periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of average daily worldwide turnover (Art. 76(1)(e)) | If the plan is missing, rejected or not implemented (Art. 75(4)) |
AliExpress has reportedly said it will appeal the fine, according to Lewis Silkin (24 July 2026). An action before the EU courts does not in itself suspend the decision (Article 278 TFEU), unless the court orders otherwise.
What brand owners should look for in the AliExpress action plan
Article 75 does not require the plan to be published. What becomes public is the platform’s annual risk assessment, mitigation measures and audit reports under Article 42(4) DSA, with possible redactions. In practice, you will judge the plan by what you see on the platform. These are the points worth tracking:
| Commission finding | What to look for | What to document |
|---|---|---|
| Brand authorisation ineffective and understaffed | Checks before publication, not after; clear enrolment for rights holders; staff dedicated to it | Listings using your marks without authorisation, with date found and date removed |
| Penalised stores remain active | Real suspension of repeat infringers (Art. 23 DSA) | Store IDs reported more than once and whether they reappear |
| Mis-categorisation bypasses checks | Category controls for branded goods | Examples of your products listed under unrelated categories |
| Products stay online for weeks | Faster processing of notices | Time from notice to removal for each report |
| Recommenders and ads amplify illegal items | Exclusion of flagged items from recommendations and ads | Screenshots of sponsored or recommended infringing listings |
What this means for your business
- Build a baseline now: a dated sample of infringing listings, notices sent, response times and repeat sellers on AliExpress. Without it, you cannot show whether the plan changed anything.
- Use the notice and action channel (Art. 16 DSA) consistently, with exact URLs and proof of rights, and keep every acknowledgement.
- Review your enrolment in the brand authorisation programme and the marks and territories it covers.
- Consider whether working with a designated trusted flagger in your sector makes sense for volume.
- Where the data show persistent problems, consider sharing it with the Commission or the competent Digital Services Coordinator; the decision itself relied in part on information from third parties.
If you need this run across marketplaces and countries, our team for online brand enforcement and IP legal services can set up the monitoring, notices and evidence file, and our trade mark team can confirm the registrations that support each notice.
Where brand owners get this wrong
- Waiting for the Commission. The decision targets AliExpress’s systems, not your listings; nobody removes your counterfeits for you.
- Sending notices without keeping records. Undated screenshots and lost acknowledgements are worthless when you need to show a pattern.
- Relying on marks that do not cover the EU. A notice is strongest when it rests on rights valid in the territory the listing targets.
- Over-notifying. Article 23 DSA lets platforms suspend the processing of notices from those who frequently submit manifestly unfounded ones.
Frequently asked questions
What is the deadline for AliExpress’s DSA action plan?
The Commission’s non-compliance decision of 20 July 2026 gave AliExpress until 20 October 2026 to submit an action plan setting out measures to remedy its breach of the obligations to assess and mitigate systemic risks. The Board then has one month to give its opinion and the Commission a further month to decide.
Will the AliExpress action plan be made public?
Article 75 DSA requires the plan to be communicated to the Digital Services Coordinators, the Commission and the Board, not published. Very large platforms must, however, publish their risk assessment, mitigation measures and audit reports under Article 42(4), subject to redactions, so some of the content should become visible over time.
Can brand owners contribute to the Commission’s assessment?
The DSA does not give rights holders a formal role in approving the plan. However, the Commission’s decision was based partly on information shared by third parties, and well-documented evidence of persistent counterfeit listings can be sent to the Commission or the competent Digital Services Coordinator.
Can IP Global Guard monitor AliExpress and other marketplaces for us?
Yes. We organise marketplace monitoring, prepare and file DSA notices, keep the evidence file and escalate to customs or courts when needed, coordinating qualified local counsel outside the EU where required, from a single point of contact for Europe, Latin America and Africa.
How IP Global Guard can help you hold marketplaces to account
The AliExpress decision shows that platform obligations are now enforceable, but the evidence still has to come from rights holders. IP Global Guard, the IP services line of META Channel Corporation Limited, combines trade mark registration, online enforcement and litigation coordination with one strategy and one billing relationship across our coverage in Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Tell us which brands and products are being copied on AliExpress and other marketplaces, and in which countries you sell. We will set the baseline, run the notices and show you, with data, whether the platform’s measures are working. Contact our online enforcement team.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and reflects the position on its publication date.
Sources
- European Commission, Commission fines AliExpress EUR 550 million for breaching the Digital Services Act, IP/26/1654 (20 July 2026)
- European Commission (Shaping Europe’s digital future), AliExpress fine announcement (20 July 2026)
- Cyprus Mail, EU fines AliExpress EUR 550 million over DSA breaches (20 July 2026)
- Lewis Silkin, European Commission fines AliExpress a record EUR 550 million (24 July 2026)
- EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) (19 October 2022), Arts. 16, 22, 23, 34, 35, 42, 75 and 76
- EUR-Lex, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Art. 278 (OJ C 202, 7 June 2016)
