European Commission fines Elon Musk's "X" 120 million euros

2025-12-06 14:25:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The European Commission imposed a 120 million euro fine on Friday on Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, for the first time under the Digital Services Act after a two-year investigation.

At the center of the investigation is the blue check mark, previously used to signal official accounts for free, but now sold for 7 euros per month, which risks confusing users about the authenticity of identities.

Under the new X settings, an account with a checkmark may not signal a real user and could instead be a robot, the Commission said. As a result, it imposed a financial fine for violating the EU DSA rules.

Secondly, the Commission found that X failed to comply with the transparency obligation for advertising on social media platforms, blurring the line between advertising and content which could lead to financial fraud for users.

The commission argued that users and authorities cannot access an updated register of advertisers on the site, which could also be problematic during election campaigns, as the origin of the claims is unclear.

X failed to provide a reason why some ads targeted certain users.

The Commission also criticised X for failing to provide researchers with data on views and likes, despite this being an obligation under the DSA.

According to a Commission official, the amount of the fine is based on “proportionality.” The total is based on the calculation that the violation of the blue mark should be fined 45 million euros, the violation of access to data for researchers 40 million euros, and the lack of access to the advertising register 35 million euros.

However, the Commission's penalty is much lower than the maximum fine of 6% that the DSA can impose based on X's total global turnover.

Overall, the sanction is relatively small compared to previous fines against other US tech giants, which dominate the European digital market.

In April, under EU antitrust law for big tech companies, Apple and Meta were fined 500 million euros and 200 million euros, respectively.

European digital investigation into Musk's X

The Commission's investigation lasted two years before deciding to fine X, a delay criticized by various governments and former Commissioner Thierry Breton.

An EU official told Euronews that the delay was mainly caused by the Commission's aim to build a strong legal case, anticipating that X would likely file a lawsuit to challenge the findings.

US Vice President JD Vance published a post on X on Thursday criticizing the decision before it was announced.

"Rumors are circulating that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship," he wrote.

"The EU should support freedom of speech, not attack American companies for waste," he added.