One billion US dollars: Brussels allegedly plans gigantic DSA fine against X
For months, the EU Commission has been investigating whether Elon Musk's X violates the DSA.
(Image: kovop/Shutterstock.com)
The EU Commission has pressed ahead with its investigation into possible violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA) by Elon Musk's short messaging service X and is preparing a massive fine. The New York Times reports this, citing anonymous sources, according to which a fine of more than one billion euros is being considered. Although the regulation stipulates a maximum fine of 6 percent of global turnover, X would be nowhere near this amount. However, Brussels is considering the possibility of including other directly controlled companies of the owner in the calculation of the fine. In Musk's case, this would be SpaceX, for example.
Tough dispute behind the scenes
It became known last summer that the EU Commission assumes that X under Musk is in breach of the DSA. Among other things, this concerns the handling of the blue tick that paying users receive, but which was previously used for verification. The commission also accuses the social network of a lack of transparency in advertising and a lack of support for science. According to the US newspaper, the investigations were slowed down after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election and only accelerated again in light of the trade conflict that began under him.
The action against X is seen as the first significant attempt to enforce the requirements of the Digital Services Act and has already become a point of contention with the new US administration. According to the report, the company has filed hundreds of appeals behind the scenes, which the EU Commission has been processing. Elon Musk announced in the summer that he would fight any penalties vigorously in court and in public. X itself has now renewed this announcement. A source told the New York Times that the proposed fine could also be so high because it is intended to set an example and deter other companies from committing their own DSA violations.
The DSA has been fully effective for a year and obliges platforms on the Internet to create more transparency regarding the moderation of content and advertising. The most extensive obligations apply to very large online platforms (VLOPs), X has been considered one since April 2023. As Musk has delisted the service from the stock exchange, only estimates of turnover under his leadership are known. However, this is crucial for determining a possible penalty. A few weeks ago, it was reported that X generated half as much in 2024 as in the last year before the takeover. That would be around 2.2 billion US dollars and therefore a maximum fine of just over 100 million US dollars. The EU Commission is now threatening significantly more.
(mho)