The European Commission announced a €128 million (about $140 million) fine against Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) for multiple breaches of rules governing very large online platforms. The penalty targets X’s holding company for what the Commission called a misleading use of the blue verification badge, a malfunctioning advertising repository, and failures to provide effective researcher access to platform data.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said Europe preferred negotiated remedies and singled out TikTok as an example of a company that offered concessions to avoid fines. “If you engage constructively with the Commission, we settle cases,” he said. “If you do not, we take action.”
The move follows preliminary findings in July 2024 that accused X — which serves more than 100 million users in the EU — of not meeting transparency requirements, converting the blue check into a paid feature in ways that misled users, and obstructing researchers. Musk has said he will challenge any EU sanctions in court rather than offer concessions.
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), regulators can fine offenders up to 6% of global annual turnover — a ceiling that could have produced much larger penalties and might have implicated other Musk businesses. The Commission’s enforcement against X is occurring amid intense political debate: some U.S. figures, including Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, criticized the decision as censorship, while the Trump administration has repeatedly accused the EU of unfairly targeting U.S. tech companies and warned of possible trade responses.
EU officials deny any link between trade negotiations and enforcement of digital rules. Regnier emphasized that the bloc’s digital legislation is not about censorship or singling out companies by nationality.
The fine against X adds to a recent string of significant EU penalties for major U.S. tech firms, including fines of €538 million on Apple and €216 million on Meta in recent cases, and multiyear penalties and remedies imposed on Google totaling several billion euros. The Commission has also sought major tax repayments from Apple.
Separate inquiries into X’s handling of illegal content, election-related misinformation, and the use of Community Notes remain open; those issues have not yet advanced to the preliminary-stage sanctions cited in the current decision.