EU fines Elon Musk's X $140M for breaching transparency obligations

LONDON

The European Commission has issued a €120 million (nearly $140 million) fine against Elon Musk's US-based social media company X for multiple breaches of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), marking the first non-compliance decision under the landmark regulation.

According to the commission, X misled users through the “deceptive design” of its blue checkmark feature, failed to meet transparency requirements for its advertising repository, and blocked researchers from accessing public data.

The commission found that X’s blue checkmark system—where users can pay for “verified” status—misrepresents verification.

This, regulators said, exposes users to scams and impersonation, violating Article 25(1) of the DSA, which prohibits deceptive design practices.

X also fell short on obligations for advertising transparency. Its ad repository reportedly includes design barriers such as long processing delays and lacks key information, including ad content, topic, and paying entities, it noted.

These gaps limit researchers’ ability to monitor scams, coordinated influence operations and other risks.

In addition, X’s rules and processes for accessing public data—such as restrictions on scraping—were deemed to impose “unnecessary barriers,” obstructing research into systemic risks across the EU.

The fine reflects the scale, impact and duration of the infringements, the commission said.

“Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU. The DSA protects users. The DSA gives researchers the way to uncover potential threats. The DSA restores trust in the online environment. With the DSA’s first non-compliance decision, we are holding X responsible for undermining users’ rights and evading accountability,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.

X now has 60 working days to outline how it will fix the deceptive checkmark system, and 90 days to submit an action plan addressing ad transparency and researcher data access. Failure to comply may trigger additional penalties.