Beijing vows to protect Chinese firms after EU hits Alibaba unit with fine
Commerce officials decry “discriminatory” barriers as source says firm had hired several outside consultants to vet goods and curb counterfeits
Beijing expressed “strong dissatisfaction and serious concern” on Wednesday, urging the European Union to treat Chinese companies fairly after Brussels slapped e-commerce platform AliExpress with a €550 million (US$630 million) fine for breaching the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
“China firmly opposes the EU’s use of platform regulation as a pretext to erect digital barriers and adopt discriminatory measures that restrict and suppress the normal business operations of Chinese e-commerce companies in Europe,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The ministry urged Brussels to “stop exploiting ambiguities in legal provisions to abuse its discretionary powers”. The ministry also vowed that Beijing would firmly back the firms in defending their rights through legal action, and would take “forceful measures” to safeguard their interests.
Alibaba Group, which owns AliExpress as well as the South China Morning Post, said it would fight the decision. In a statement on Monday after Brussels announced the fine, the group described the penalty as “disproportionate” and said it did not reflect the “significant, proactive enhancements” that the company had committed to undertake.
On Wednesday, a company source told the SCMP that AliExpress had made “substantial” investments in EU compliance over the past two years.
“This included introducing more than 10 internationally renowned third-party advisory firms across various specialised fields,” the source said, adding that these areas include risk assessment, manual content moderation, independent quality control and monitoring for counterfeit sales.