AliExpress

Is AliExpress safe to use?

As a shop, AliExpress is a real marketplace with an in-app dispute process for orders that go wrong. What it does not reliably do is keep illegal products off the site. On 20 July 2026 the European Commission fined it €550 million, the largest Digital Services Act fine so far, after finding that counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics circulated widely and stayed online for weeks. We score it 44/100, just above Temu (42) and Shein (41), and below Amazon (53).

The main risk is what arrives in the box, not your card details.

What did the EU find?

The Commission opened its case in March 2024. AliExpress had declared about 104 million monthly EU users when it was designated a very large online platform in April 2023. In June 2025 it accepted binding commitments from AliExpress on advertising transparency, recommender systems, trader traceability and how users report illegal products, and at the same time issued preliminary findings on illegal products.

The final decision in July 2026 found that AliExpress:

• overestimated how well its systems caught illegal products and had too few human moderators for the workload
• did not assess how its recommendations and ads spread illegal items; Commission testing found many were promoted before removal
• did not enforce its penalties, so stores caught selling illegal goods stayed active
• let traders dodge safety checks by putting products in the wrong category
• ran a brand authorisation system against counterfeits that was "ineffective and understaffed"

AliExpress had to send an action plan by 20 October 2026. It has filed a challenge at the EU General Court, MLex reported in October 2026.

What happens to your data?

AliExpress, through Alibaba.com Singapore E-Commerce, says in its July 2026 privacy policy that EU users' data sits on servers in Germany and Singapore, users in the Americas in the US and Singapore. Staff outside your country can get "limited remote access". Your name, phone number and address also go to the seller, who is usually in China, and the policy allows such transfers to countries without EU-level protection when they are needed to deliver an order.

That seller flow is what Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission punished in July 2024. It found AliExpress had passed Korean customers' data to more than 180,000 overseas sellers, mostly Chinese, without telling users which countries and companies received it, and that the account deletion page appeared only in English. It fined AliExpress about ₩1.9 billion (around $1.4 million) and ordered fixes. It was the first penalty under Korea's rules on transfers abroad.

Apple's label lists identifiers used to track you, and payment info, precise location, address, photos and search history linked to you. The policy says advertising partners such as Google, X, Facebook and Instagram may combine what they collect on AliExpress with their own data. That is broad, though AliExpress lets you switch off personalised recommendations and ads in its privacy settings.

Scams and fake products

Scams on AliExpress are mostly about the goods: branded items that are copies, chargers without real safety certification, cosmetics with banned ingredients, and listings where the photo does not match the product. Watch for:

• prices far below the brand's own price on "original" products
• sellers who ask you to pay or chat outside AliExpress
• reviews that describe a different product from the listing
• toys and children's items with no CE or UKCA marking or traceable importer

If something goes wrong, open a dispute in the app before the buyer protection window closes, and keep photos and messages. A credit card chargeback is the fallback.

How to shop on AliExpress more safely

1. Pay with PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or a credit card rather than a debit card.
2. Turn off personalised ads and recommendations in the app's privacy settings, and deny location access.
3. Avoid buying electrical items, toys, cosmetics and medicines unless the seller shows proper safety markings and a real address.
4. Check a store's age, sales history and ratings before ordering.
5. Do not use AliExpress if you are under 18: its own policy requires adult users.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (32) and regulatory record (28) are the weakest factors, both driven by the Commission's €550 million finding on illegal products, plus Korea's 2024 data fine. Privacy (40) reflects ad sharing and data flowing to overseas sellers. Security (55) is middling: no known customer breach, but little published detail on protection.