EU 'ready to defend' €120m fine against Musk's X

The European Union has said that it was "ready to defend" its €120 million fine against Elon Musk's X platform after the United States asked a top court to let it intervene on Mr Musk's side.

Mr Musk and X, formerly known as Twitter, are challenging the penalty imposed by Brussels for violating the bloc's online content rules.

The US Justice Department said yesterday that it had filed an application at the EU's second-highest court backing Mr Musk and X's bid to annul the European Commission's December 2025 decision, the first fine ever issued under the Digital Services Act (DSA).

"We have a very solid case that we have advanced, indeed, with a €120 million fine... and the commission is, of course, absolutely ready to defend its position in court," EU spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters.

"We have a lot of evidence at our disposal and it will be for the court to decide as always. They are fully independent," Mr Regnier added.

The EU sanction against X last December followed a two-year-long investigation under the DSA, which requires online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content.

The European Commission's tech chief Henna Virkkunen said X's modest fine was proportionate and calculated based on the nature of the infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users and their duration.

DSA fines can be as high as 6% of a company's annual global revenue.