US DOJ seeks to join X’s challenge to €120m EU fine
Its intervention brings the application of territorial jurisdiction under international law into the case.
The US Department of Justice has asked the EU General Court to let it join Elon Musk’s and X’s effort to overturn the €120m penalty, drawing Washington into a dispute over Brussels’ authority over American technology firms. The European Commission imposed the fine in December 2025 over X’s paid blue verification marks, saying they could mislead users because the platform does not adequately confirm who controls the accounts. Regulators also cited weaknesses in advertising transparency and researchers’ access to public data; the penalty was the Commission’s first formal non-compliance decision under the Digital Services Act. The DOJ says the US wants territorial jurisdiction applied consistently with international law and wants to avoid harm to US-based digital services. The cases will be heard in Luxembourg, while the EU is separately investigating X’s AI assistant Grok over concerns about its use to generate sexualised images of real people.
Why it matters
The case now has a US government stake alongside X and Musk’s effort to overturn the penalty. It includes not only the platform’s challenge but also the DOJ’s stated interest in how territorial jurisdiction should be applied under international law.
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