Washington backs Musk’s bid to overturn Europe’s €120m X fine

• On 24 September, the US government asked the EU’s General Court to let it intervene in two cases brought by X companies and Elon Musk against the Commission’s decision. The court has not yet ruled on that request.¹
• The Justice Department says its challenge is about the EU’s reach beyond its borders, how the Commission attributed responsibility across Musk-linked companies, and scrutiny of Musk personally.¹
• The €120 million fine was imposed on 5 December 2025 for alleged breaches of transparency rules covering X’s blue checkmarks, advertising repository and researcher access to public data.²
• X’s companies and Musk filed their challenges on 16 February 2026. The General Court lists both cases as pending; no timetable for deciding the US request has been announced in the public records reviewed.³⁴

The stakes extend beyond Musk’s bill. If admitted, the US government would add its weight to an argument that EU enforcement over digital services can improperly reach American companies and their owners. That could matter to other US-based platforms operating in Europe. But an intervention would give Washington a voice in the cases, not decide whether the fine stands.

The Commission’s decision was not a ruling that X had to remove particular speech. It concerned transparency: whether users could trust the meaning of a blue check, and whether researchers and the public could inspect advertising and platform data. The court challenge remains unresolved.²

Footnotes

1. US Department of Justice, “United States Files Request to Intervene…”, 24 September 2026. ↩ ↩²

2. European Commission, “Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act”, 5 December 2025. ↩ ↩²

3. General Court case record, X Internet and X Holdings v Commission, T-114/26. ↩

4. General Court case record, Musk v Commission, T-121/26. ↩