The United States has moved to join Elon Musk’s legal challenge against a €120 million (£105 million) European Union fine imposed on X, escalating a dispute over the reach of Brussels’ technology rules and their application to American companies.
The US Department of Justice has filed an application with the EU’s General Court, the bloc’s second-highest court, backing Musk and X’s bid to annul the European Commission’s decision. The application was announced on Thursday, 24 September.
The Commission issued the fine in December 2025. It was its first official non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU framework governing large online platforms.
EU regulators said X 'deceives users' through its blue tick system because people can pay for a verified check mark while the platform is not 'meaningfully verifying' the identity behind the account. They also accused the company of failing to provide sufficient transparency around advertisements and of denying researchers access to public data.
The US government’s filing challenges the Commission’s authority to apply its decision in this case. Brett A. Shumate, the US Assistant Attorney General, said the Commission had 'inappropriately attempted' to extend its reach to American companies outside its control.
The Justice Department said the US 'has a clear interest' in ensuring that any Commission decision is applied consistently with 'how territorial jurisdiction is generally understood in international law'.
Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, presented the case in wider terms. He wrote: 'The European Commission's fine isn't just an attack on X, it's an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments'.
The Commission has maintained that the case concerns compliance with rules applying within the EU. Henna Virkkunen, the regulator’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, said the Commission was 'holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability'.
Virkkunen said: 'Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU'.
The fight over the fine comes as the EU continues a separate investigation into X’s integrated artificial intelligence assistant, Grok. Regulators are examining concerns that it was used to create sexualised images of real people.
Musk has previously said EU technology regulation 'inhibits progress' for companies. The US intervention request now places the American government directly alongside X in its effort to overturn the Commission’s December 2025 decision.
Comments (0)