The US Department of Justice has filed an application with the EU General Court supporting X's bid to annul a 120 million euro fine for Digital Services Act violations. Washington called the EU sanction an overreach against American companies, deepening the transatlantic clash over Big Tech regulation.
The Department of Justice announced on September 24 that it had formally asked the General Court in Luxembourg for permission to intervene in two pending cases: X Internet and X Holdings v. Commission (Case T-114/26) and Musk v. Commission (Case T-121/26). Both actions seek the full annulment of the European Commission's December 5, 2025 decision, which imposed the 120 million euro penalty jointly and severally after a two-year investigation. The fine was the first ever issued under the Digital Services Act, the bloc's flagship online-safety law.
The Commission found that X had breached transparency obligations through the design of its paid blue checkmark, which regulators said could mislead users about the identity or authenticity of accounts and leave them vulnerable to scams. It also faulted X's advertising repository for lacking required information and said the platform's terms created barriers to researchers' access to public data.
Washington's central objection concerns jurisdiction and corporate liability. Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, of the Justice Department's Civil Division, said the Commission had "inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority" to reach American companies that neither operate nor are present in its jurisdiction. The DOJ argues that the Commission's own register names the Ireland-based X Internet Unlimited Company as the provider of the service, yet the decision reached Elon Musk as a private individual and separate American companies he owns, cutting across the corporate veil principle that shields shareholders from a company's liabilities.
The Department of Justice said it coordinated its application with the US Department of State, given the implications for US-EU relations, and described the dispute as the first challenge to a DSA enforcement action to reach the General Court. Under Article 40 of the Statute of the Court of Justice of the EU, a state may intervene in a case where it can establish an interest in the result; the court has yet to decide whether to admit the United States.
The European Commission has vowed to defend its decision. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the EU has the right to make and enforce laws intended to protect its citizens and expressed confidence in the case, citing substantial evidence. The intervention marks a new escalation in the long-running transatlantic standoff over how aggressively Europe regulates US technology giants, with Washington increasingly framing EU fines and content rules as discriminatory against American innovation.