The European Commission fined X €120 million on December 5, 2025, in its first Digital Services Act (DSA) non-compliance decision. The penalty covers three transparency failures—not just X’s paid blue checks: the Commission said the badge could mislead users about account authenticity, X’s advertising repository was inadequate, and eligible researchers faced barriers to public platform data.
In July 2026, the Commission accepted an X plan to address the advertising and researcher-access breaches. X has six months to implement those measures, followed by an independent audit. The plan’s acceptance does not mean the Commission has declared those problems fixed.
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What did the EU fine X for?
The Commission’s December 5, 2025 decision found that X breached three DSA transparency obligations. It called the decision the first DSA non-compliance decision. The €120 million is the total penalty for the findings; the Commission’s public summary does not provide a complete allocation of that amount among the three breaches. European Commission: X fine and findings.
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- Blue-check presentation: Article 25(1), concerning deceptive design.
- Advertising repository: Article 39, requiring a usable repository of information about advertisements.
- Researcher access: Article 40(12), concerning access for eligible researchers to public platform data.
The Commission said it considered the nature and seriousness of the infringements in relation to affected EU users, as well as their duration. This was a transparency and design decision, not a ruling that X was fined simply for charging users or for spreading misinformation.
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Why did the Commission object to paid blue checks?
The Commission’s objection was not that paid verification is automatically unlawful. It focused on the impression created by the familiar blue check and “verified” presentation when a user could obtain the status by paying without meaningful verification of the identity behind the account. The Commission said this could make it harder for people to judge whether an account was authentic and expose them to impersonation fraud, scams, malicious manipulation, or misleading claims of authority.
The DSA does not require platforms to verify every user’s identity. Nor did the decision establish that every account with a blue check is fraudulent. The finding concerned the way the status was presented and what users could reasonably infer from it. The Commission linked this breach to Article 25(1). Commission decision summary.
For users, a checkmark should not be treated as proof of legal identity, editorial credibility, government affiliation, expertise, or absence of automation. For an important claim, check the account’s history, follow links to official websites, and confirm contact details through sources outside the platform.
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What was wrong with the advertising repository?
The Commission found shortcomings in both the information available and the practical ability to use X’s ad repository. It said the repository did not provide important details such as the full content or subject matter of ads and the legal entity paying for them. It also cited design barriers, difficult searching, and excessive delays.
A repository that exists but is too slow, incomplete, or awkward to search can still frustrate scrutiny. The Commission said these shortcomings impaired the ability of researchers, civil-society groups, and the public to investigate paid influence, scams, coordinated activity, and other systemic risks. It tied the finding to Article 39. European Commission: advertising-repository finding.
What did the Commission say about researcher access?
The Commission said X did not provide eligible researchers with effective access to public platform data. It cited terms that prohibited independent access, including scraping, as well as application and screening procedures that created unnecessary barriers or delays. The finding concerned Article 40(12).
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That is not the same as creating unrestricted access for anyone to collect all X data. The DSA provision concerns eligible researchers and public data; qualification procedures, privacy safeguards, security controls, intellectual-property interests, and technical limits may still matter. The question is whether access works effectively in practice, not simply whether an application form or API exists. European Commission: researcher-access finding.
What did X have to do after the decision?
The original decision set separate deadlines for the blue-check issue and the other two breaches. It also provided for review of the action plan and continuing Commission oversight; failure to comply could lead to periodic penalty payments, but the decision did not itself announce that such payments had been imposed. Commission decision and next steps.
| Issue | Original requirement | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Blue-check design (Article 25(1)) | Tell the Commission which specific measures X intended to take to end the breach | 60 working days |
| Advertising repository (Article 39) and researcher access (Article 40(12)) | Submit an action plan for addressing the breaches | 90 working days |
What changed in July 2026?
On July 16, 2026, the Commission accepted X’s action plan for the advertising-repository and researcher-access breaches. The Digital Services Board had assessed the proposed measures as only partially adequate before the Commission clarified requirements. Acceptance followed that process; it was not a declaration that X had already completed the changes. X has six months from acceptance to implement the plan, after which an independent external audit is required. The Commission said it would continue enhanced supervision. European Commission: accepted action plan.
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Advertising repository commitments
- Add filters based on ad content and targeting criteria, with search results shown directly in the repository rather than in separate Excel files.
- Reduce response time from about 200 seconds to the minimum technically achievable.
- Add full ad content and destination URLs, and enable API access.
Researcher-access commitments
- Improve application screening and reduce unnecessary exchanges and processing delays.
- Provide eligible researchers with free access and sufficient data volumes in a timely manner.
- Amend terms so eligible researchers are not contractually prohibited from scraping publicly available data.
These commitments do not mean that every researcher is automatically eligible, that data access is unlimited, or that an API alone guarantees useful access. The practical test will be whether researchers can obtain appropriate public data in time to conduct their work. The Commission’s detailed summary sets out the measures and six-month implementation period. Commission summary of corrective measures.
The blue-check finding has a separate track: X originally had 60 working days to explain measures addressing it. The July action-plan update describes corrective measures for the ad repository and researcher access, but does not provide a comparably detailed final resolution of the blue-check issue.
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Does the decision end the EU’s case against X?
No. The €120 million decision addresses the three transparency findings described above; it is not a final ruling on every EU concern about X. The Commission’s enforcement record lists broader proceedings opened on December 18, 2023, covering areas that include illegal-content risk management, content moderation, recommender systems, deceptive design, advertising transparency, and researcher data access. European Commission: designated platforms and enforcement chronology.
What the penalty does—and does not—mean
- It is not a blanket EU ban on paid verification; the Commission said the DSA does not mandate user verification.
- It is not a finding that every blue-check account is fake or malicious.
- It is not a €120 million charge solely for blue checks; the penalty covers three findings, with no complete public breakdown by breach in the Commission summary.
- It does not give everyone permission to scrape all X data without conditions.
- Acceptance of the July 2026 plan is not proof of completed compliance, and the broader X proceedings continue.
For users, advertisers, researchers, and civil-society groups, the case turns on three parts of platform trust infrastructure: how a badge signals authenticity, whether paid influence can be examined, and whether outsiders can obtain data to test claims about the platform. Advertisers can preserve their campaign records while repository changes are implemented; researchers can assess access through eligibility decisions, data timeliness, and usable volumes; and the public can judge repository improvements by whether relevant ad details are actually searchable.
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