The Commission Fined X €120 Million on December 5, 2025. The File Did Not Close.

An opening of proceedings, a set of preliminary findings, a fine, and a later inquiry are different Commission documents. A fine for three transparency breaches is not a finding on every question the 2023 file asked. Mr. Musk’s posts about the fine are reported here as the outlets quote them. The posts were not opened.

The platform is X. The 2024 block in Brazil is a different order. Grok as a product is the xAI page. Where the companies sit in the filings is who owns X, xAI, and SpaceX.

What’s confirmed

December 18, 2023: formal proceedings

The Commission’s press release IP/23/6709, read October 20, 2026, from the press-corner document for that reference, is dated Brussels, December 18, 2023. The event date on the document record is 2023-12-18. The title is “Commission opens formal proceedings against X under the Digital Services Act.”

The release says the Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether X may have breached the Digital Services Act in areas linked to risk management, content moderation, dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers. It says the decision rested on a preliminary investigation, including a risk-assessment report X submitted in September, a transparency report published on November 3, and replies to a formal request for information, including on illegal content in the context of Hamas’s attacks against Israel.

The proceedings, as that release lists them, cover four areas:

The release says the opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge the outcome. It says X was designated a very large online platform on April 25, 2023, following its declaration of 112 million monthly active users in the EU, reported to the Commission on February 17, 2023.

Label: The Commission’s opening document. “May have breached” and “if proven” are the release’s. Designation is a Commission act the release states. The 112 million figure is the release’s account of what X declared.

July 12, 2024: preliminary findings on three grievances

The print of IP/24/3761, “Commission sends preliminary findings to X for breach of the Digital Services Act,” is dated Brussels, 12 July 2024. It says the Commission informed X of its preliminary view that X is in breach in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency, and data access for researchers. It lists three grievances:

1. The interface for “verified accounts” with the blue checkmark “does not correspond to industry practice and deceives users,” because anyone can subscribe to obtain that status. The release says there is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the verified account to deceive users.
2. X does not provide a searchable and reliable advertisement repository. Design features and access barriers make the repository unfit for its transparency purpose.
3. X fails to provide researchers access to public data in line with the DSA. The release says the terms of service prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing public data, such as by scraping, and that the process for API access appears to dissuade researchers or leave them paying disproportionally high fees.

The release says preliminary findings are without prejudice to the outcome, and that X can examine the file and reply. It says that if the preliminary views were confirmed, a non-compliance decision could entail fines of up to 6 percent of the provider’s total worldwide annual turnover, and an order to address the breach. That 6 percent is the release’s description of what a decision could entail. It is not the fine later imposed.

The background section says the December 18, 2023 proceedings also covered illegal content and information manipulation, “for which the investigation continues,” and that dark patterns, advertising transparency, and researcher access are the subject of the preliminary findings that day.

The same release says X was designated a very large online platform on April 25, 2023, “following its declaration of reaching more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU.”

Label: IP/24/3761. “More than 45 million” is what this release prints. “112 million,” reported on February 17, 2023, is what IP/23/6709 prints. This page does not average them or decide which declaration they describe. The illegal-content and information-manipulation questions are, in this release’s own words, still under investigation on July 12, 2024.

December 5, 2025: a €120 million non-compliance decision

The print of IP/25/2934, “Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act,” is dated Brussels, 5 December 2025. It says the Commission has issued a fine of €120 million to X for breaching transparency obligations. It names three breaches: the deceptive design of the blue checkmark, the lack of transparency of the advertising repository, and the failure to provide access to public data for researchers.

On the checkmark, the release says anyone can pay to obtain verified status without the company meaningfully verifying who is behind the account, and that the DSA “clearly prohibits online platforms from falsely claiming that users have been verified, when no such verification took place.” It says the DSA does not mandate user verification. On the ads repository, it cites excessive delays and missing information, including the content and topic of the advertisement and the legal entity paying for it. On researcher access, it says the terms prohibit eligible researchers from independently accessing public data, including through scraping, and that the processes impose unnecessary barriers.

The release says the fine took account of the nature of the infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration. It says this is the first non-compliance decision under the DSA.

Next steps, as the release prints them: 60 working days to inform the Commission of the measures intended to end the infringement of Article 25(1), the blue checkmarks. 90 working days to submit an action plan for Articles 39 and 40(12), the ads repository and researcher access. Failure to comply may lead to periodic penalty payments.

The background says that on December 18, 2023 the Commission opened proceedings on illegal content and information manipulation, “for which the investigation continues,” and that the deceptive-design, advertising-transparency, and data-access matters are the ones for which it adopted preliminary findings on July 12, 2024, and a non-compliance decision that day.

Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, is quoted on the release, dated 05/12/2025: “Deceiving users with blue checkmarks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the EU.”

Label: The decision, as the press release states it. €120 million is the Commission’s figure for this decision. A dollar conversion is not in the release. The release fines X. It does not, in the text this desk read, say the fine was imposed on Mr. Musk as a person.

January 26, 2026: a Grok investigation, and an extension

The print of IP/26/203, “Commission investigates Grok and X’s recommender systems under the Digital Services Act,” is dated Brussels, 26 January 2026. It says the Commission has launched a new formal investigation against X, and in parallel has extended the December 2023 investigation into recommender-system risk management.

The new investigation, the release says, will assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks from deploying Grok’s functionalities into X in the EU, including “risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material.” The next sentence says: “These risks seem to have materialised, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm.”

The release says the Commission will investigate whether X diligently assessed and mitigated those systemic risks, and whether it conducted and transmitted an ad hoc risk-assessment report before deploying Grok functionalities with a critical impact on X’s risk profile. Separately, it says the December 2023 proceedings are extended to whether X assessed and mitigated systemic risks from its recommender systems, “including the impact of its recently announced switch to a Grok-based recommender system.”

It says that if proven, the failures would infringe Articles 34(1) and (2), 35(1), and 42(2). It says the opening does not prejudge the outcome. It says Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish Digital Services Coordinator, will be associated under Article 66(3).

The background says the December 5, 2025 decision fined X €120 million for the deceptive-design, advertising, and researcher-access matters. It then says: “On 19 September, the Commission sent to X a request for information related to Grok, including also questions in relation to the antisemitic content generated by @grok in mid-2025.”

Label: IP/26/203. “Seem to have materialised” is the Commission’s sentence in an opening document, not a non-compliance decision. The release does not print a year on “19 September.” It does print “mid-2025” for the content the questions concerned. This page does not supply the missing year. No outcome of the January 26, 2026 proceedings was in this release.

July 16, 2026: the Commission says it accepted an action plan

The Commission’s digital-strategy page, Commission accepts X’s action plan, is marked Publication 16 July 2026. It says the Commission has accepted X’s action plan on transparency obligations and researchers’ access to data. It says that following the December 2025 decision and fine, X committed to improve the advertising repository with better search, faster response times, more information about advertisements, and API access, and to give eligible researchers effective access to public data, free of charge, with a faster screening process and terms that do not contractually prohibit eligible researchers from scraping public data.

It says the Board for Digital Services gave its opinion on 15 June. The page does not print a year on that date. It says the Board considered the proposed changes partially adequate, but deemed X’s audit measures and, as a result, the overall action plan insufficient. It says the Commission considered that opinion and clarified several points X must consider. It says X has six months to implement the measures and must then submit an audit.

A second page, Commission accepts X’s corrective measures, lists measures in more detail, including reducing the repository’s response time “from 200 seconds to the minimum time technically achievable,” and displaying search results on the repository interface “rather than on separate Excels.” The text extracted from that page on October 20, 2026, did not include a publication date. This page does not invent one. The six-month implementation period and the audit are that page’s as well. It says the Board found the action plan overall inadequate, and that the Commission clarified implementation requirements.

Label: Two Commission pages about an acceptance. Acceptance of a plan is not a finding that the measures are already in place. The blue-checkmark infringement in the December 5 decision is not the subject these two pages describe. They describe the ads repository and researcher access.

What Mr. Musk said, as two outlets quote posts this desk did not open

Politico (Ben Munster, December 6, 2025, 1:44 p.m. CET) quotes him: “The ‘EU’ imposed this crazy fine not just on [X], but also on me personally, which is even more insane!” And: “Therefore, it would seem appropriate to apply our response not just to the EU, but also to the individuals who took this action against me.” Politico also quotes: “The EU woke Stasi commissars are about to understand the full meaning of the ‘Streisand Effect.’” It says he followed up with another post to say the EU should be “abolished.” Politico says he did not elaborate on the form of the response or which individuals he would target.

Politico reports a Commission official saying the executive has found three entities behind X: X Holdings Companies, xAI, and Elon Musk “at the top.” It quotes spokesperson Thomas Regnier that the fine is “for a breach committed by X” but “addressed to the entire corporate structure.”

CNBC (December 8, 2025) says that in a reply on X to a Commission post he wrote “Bulls—.” The hyphens are CNBC’s. This page does not fill them in. CNBC quotes a later post: “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.” CNBC’s dollar figure, $140 million, is CNBC’s. It is not in IP/25/2934.

Label: Politico’s and CNBC’s quotations of posts. The posts were not opened. A claim that the fine was imposed on him personally is his, as Politico quotes it. IP/25/2934, the decision release, says the Commission fined X. Regnier’s sentence, as Politico reports it, distinguishes a breach by X from the corporate structure the decision was addressed to. An unnamed official’s list of entities is Politico’s attribution. It is not a sentence in the December 5 press release this desk read.

Claims and open questions

The July 12, 2024 release’s “up to 6 percent” is a statutory ceiling described there. €120 million is the December 5, 2025 fine. This page does not compute what share of turnover €120 million was. The release does not print that share.

The illegal-content limb of the December 2023 file was still described as continuing on December 5, 2025. The January 26, 2026 Grok proceedings are a new opening plus an extension. No non-compliance decision on Grok was in the documents this desk read.

Whether the six-month implementation period that starts from the July 16, 2026 page has produced the audit was not checked against a later Commission document. The Board’s “15 June” opinion was not opened as its own text.

On the map

X is the platform. The Brazil orders are not this file. The product named in the January 2026 release is Grok.

Sources

Checked October 20, 2026.