Elon Musk’s X cooperates with €120M EU fine

BRUSSELS — Elon Musk’s X has met its deadline for the €120 million fine issued by the EU in December, a European Commission spokesperson confirmed.

The cooperation with the EU comes as X continues a legal challenge against the decision.

Under the ruling announced in December, X had a deadline this month to pay the fine and to offer remedies on the design of blue checkmarks for verified accounts on its service. “Both of them have been done,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.

Meeting the deadline means X either paying the fine or offering a financial guarantee that it will do so should its appeal against the fine fail.

“One of the two options” has been met, Regnier said, adding: “The Commission is really not in the habit of communicating about financial transactions happening between private businesses and the Commission.”

X declined to comment for this story.

The Commission in December found X in breach of the EU’s platform law, the Digital Services Act, for the design of blue checkmarks and for failing to meet transparency obligations.

Both Musk and U.S. Republicans expressed strong dissatisfaction with the fine when it was issued, describing it as an attack on free speech.

The company is appealing the decision at the Court of Justice of the European Union.

It also submitted a proposal to address the design of its blue checkmarks on March 10.

X has until April 28 to submit remedies on the other two counts where they accuse the platform of breaches: advertising and data transparency.

The Commission will analyze X’s proposal to see if it addresses the concerns and could impose further penalties should X fail to implement them.