Brussels – December 5, 2025 – The European Union has fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X a total of €120 million for systemic violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA), marking the first time Brussels has used its flagship digital rulebook to impose a financial penalty on a major tech company.
The European Commission ruled that X deliberately misled users by turning the once-prestigious blue checkmark into a paid subscription perk with no meaningful identity verification, failed to provide adequate transparency on political and commercial advertising, and unlawfully restricted independent researchers’ access to public data. Regulators described the paid verification system as a “deceptive design” that dramatically increased the risk of impersonation, scams, and coordinated manipulation.
European Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, who oversees digital enforcement, stressed that the decision was strictly about transparency and user protection. “This has nothing to do with censorship,” she told reporters. “We are simply making sure that one of the world’s largest platforms follows the same rules as everyone else.”
The €120 million penalty is considered moderate under DSA rules, which allow fines of up to 6 % of a company’s global annual turnover. Brussels chose to base the calculation only on X’s European operations rather than Musk’s broader business empire, deliberately avoiding the multi-billion-euro figures that had been speculated in recent weeks.
The investigation began in December 2023 and focused on three core breaches:
- The blue-checkmark overhaul introduced after Musk’s 2022 takeover, which replaced rigorous identity checks with an €8/month subscription anyone can buy.
- An incomplete and poorly designed public advertising library that makes it nearly impossible to track influence campaigns.
- Repeated refusal to grant researchers proper access to public posts, in direct violation of the DSA’s transparency obligations.
Separate DSA probes into X’s handling of illegal content, disinformation, and election interference remain active and could lead to additional sanctions.
The timing of the announcement intensified an already heated transatlantic dispute. Hours earlier, U.S. Vice President JD Vance had publicly warned Europe against “attacking American companies over garbage,” prompting Musk to reply with a brief “Much appreciated.” The fine was revealed the same day the Trump administration released its new National Security Strategy, which accused the EU of “regulatory suffocation” and pledged to support European political forces resisting Brussels’ policies.
In a separate development on Friday, the Commission accepted legally binding commitments from TikTok to overhaul its advertising transparency tools, sparing the Chinese-owned platform a fine for now while deeper investigations continue.
Advocacy groups and several EU governments hailed the X decision as a landmark. France’s Digital Affairs Minister called it “historic” proof that Europe can move “from words to action.” The Center for Countering Digital Hate said the ruling showed “no tech billionaire is above the law.”
X has not yet issued an official response but is widely expected to appeal the decision to the European Court of Justice. Under the DSA, the company has 60 days to restore meaningful verification indicators and 90 days to present a detailed compliance plan on advertising and researcher access, or face escalating daily penalties.
While the €120 million sum is unlikely to dent Musk’s personal fortune, the ruling represents a major symbolic victory for Brussels in its long-running campaign to bring American tech giants under European regulatory control — and a clear signal that political pressure from Washington will not derail enforcement of the bloc’s digital laws.
