On 5 December 2025, the European Commission imposed a €120 million fine on X after concluding that the platform had breached several transparency duties under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is the first non-compliance decision adopted since the DSA entered into force. The Commission determined that X had violated three core obligations:

• X’s paid “blue checkmark” feature deceives users increasing their exposure to scams, including impersonation fraud;
• X’s advertising repository is insufficiently transparent and unreliably accessible preventing researchers and civil-society organisations from effectively examining potential threats;
• X’s terms of service bar independent collection of public information, such as scraping, and its formal access procedures create additional hurdles undermining research into systemic risks in the EU that the DSA aims to address.

The €120 million fine reflects the seriousness and duration of the violations, as well as the number of EU users affected.

The Commission concluded that each of the practices at issue directly conflict with the transparency and accountability standards that very large online platforms (VLOPs) must meet under the DSA. In particular, the deceptive presentation of the checkmark constituted an unlawful design practice; the deficiencies in the ad repository fell short of the strict disclosure rules in Art. 39; and X’s obstacles to data access violated Art. 40(12), which guarantees researchers the ability to study risks that may affect EU society.

Next steps and implications

X was given 60 working days to explain how it would put an end to the deceptive use of blue checkmarks and 90 working days to submit a full action plan addressing the shortcomings in its ad repository and researcher access systems. The Digital Services Board will provide an opinion once the plan has been submitted, after which the Commission will set a compliance deadline. Continued violations may trigger additional periodic penalties.

The Commission also signalled that this case forms only part of a wider investigation into X’s handling of illegal content and information manipulation, launched in December 2023 and which is still ongoing.

In a statement, Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stressed that the decision demonstrates the EU’s resolve to hold major platforms accountable: the DSA, she said, is intended to protect users, support independent research, and restore trust in online environments.